


Come Back to Me

by Sadmuse (Aleigh75)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cedric Lives, Character Death Fix, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Minor Character Death, My muse hates Ron, No paradox this time, Possible trigger - cancer, Severe Depression, Time Travel, slight (unintentional) Ron Weasley bashing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 00:12:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4413404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aleigh75/pseuds/Sadmuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slightly alternate universe where Cedric and Hermione meet and became close friends during her first year at Hogwarts. It's mostly fluff, but does deal with some very serious issues. It generally follows the story line of the books, but "tweaked" to include more Cedric, because who doesn't want more Cedric? ;-)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As you can see, the story switches focus between Cedric and Hermione.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rowling didn't really tell us all that much about Cedric's parents, so in this story, his mother is a half-blood. Also, you're going to have to ignore the fact that she was alive in Goblet of Fire. I made up some other stuff about his family, but I'll wait to talk about that when it's mentioned in the story.

Hermione couldn't see him very well the first time they met. On the evening she first arrived at Hogwarts, she was briefly caught up in the rush of older students making their way to the carriages that would bring them up to the castle. She struggled against the sea of mostly taller students, but was gradually swept further and further away from the boat landing she was supposed to be heading for.  
  
"Hey, are you lost?" A boy's voice suddenly spoke directly in her ear, just as someone gently grasped her elbow, making her jump slightly.  
  
The owner of the voice was a few inches taller than her. Hermione squinted up at him, trying to make out more detail, but there was a lamp post directly behind him, and the light formed a blinding halo around his head, while cloaking his face in shadow. "Uh, yes. I'm supposed to be at the boat launch, but I can't see over all of you _tall_ people," she admitted, grinning sheepishly.  
  
He chuckled softly. "I can see how that could be a problem. Come on, it's right this way..." He offered her his arm, and she shyly hooked her own through it. He somehow blocked the flow of students coming at them from their left, and managed to clear a path to the edge of the crowd. "You see that really big guy standing over there with the lantern?" he asked, pointing at an absolutely huge man with frizzy black curls even wilder than Hermione's own perpetually unruly mess.  
  
"How could I possibly miss him?" Hermione mumbled dazedly.  
  
Her rescuer laughed. "That's Hagrid. He's the game keeper, and he'll be bringing you first years across the lake."  
  
"Thank you so much!" Hermione exclaimed, quickly taking note of the scarf he was wearing, which looked either gold or yellow with stripes that were possibly black, but maybe red. It was impossible to be sure in the dim light, now that they'd moved away from the lamp post.  
  
"No problem. Welcome to Hogwarts." He bowed playfully, the shadows still obscuring his face. He turned away, and she caught a glimpse of dark blond or light brown hair as he passed under the nearest lamp post. He was rapidly absorbed into the crowd of older students.  
  
When the Sorting Hat asked her a short time later if she wanted to join Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor, telling her she had tendencies that made her suitable for any of these houses, she thought about her unseen rescuer, and tried to picture his scarf. She looked around the Hall, hoping to figure out which house he was in, but almost all of the older students had already removed their outer cloaks and scarves, so she couldn't compare the patterns. Thinking hard, she decided that she was pretty sure that his scarf had been gold and red. Upon hearing her decision, the Hat willingly assigned her to Gryffindor. She didn't notice the disappointed expression on the face of one brown-haired, gray-eyed Hufflepuff boy, seated halfway across the Hall. He watched her run to take her seat beside a gawky, thin, red-haired boy, who introduced himself as Percy Weasley. He just had to be related to the rude boy with the dirty face she'd encountered on the train...  
  
***  
  
Cedric barely noticed their second encounter. It was his fourteenth birthday, and he was surrounded by several of his friends in the castle courtyard. They were huddled rather close together because the day was unusually chilly, even for September. His housemates were singing "Happy Birthday" (quite loudly and rather off-key) beneath his favorite tree when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that someone had paused as they walked past the rambunctious group. Sunlight shone off honey-gold highlights in a mass of curly brown hair that triggered a flicker of memory that he couldn't quite place.  
  
Before he could look directly at the person, he was distracted by the automatically re-lighting candle on the pumpkin cupcake one of his Quidditch teammates had just presented him with. Blushing furiously due to all the attention being bestowed upon him, Cedric flipped his scarf over his shoulder, and blew out the candle again. This time, he waved his wand behind his back, and silently cast a smothering spell on the tiny flickering flame, repeating the process until he was sure it was really extinguished. A chorus of "Good job, old man!" rose from his fellow third years, who always delighted in teasing him for being older than everyone else in their year. Almost a full year older than a few who had late summer birthdays.  
  
He wished they understood how very _not_ funny it was for him to have his birthday fall just a few weeks too late for him to have begun at Hogwarts with the rest of the kids his own age. He'd much rather have been the youngest student in his year than the oldest. The age gap did get easier to deal with as they got older, but at times there seemed to be a world of difference in maturity between himself and a couple of his dorm mates, who had turned thirteen over the summer. For one thing, he took a lot of verbal abuse for sometimes hanging around with girls; but honestly, he'd discovered that most thirteen year old girls, and even some of the twelve year olds, were a much easier for him to relate to as far as maturity, intellect and personality were concerned than some of the immature prats he shared a room with.  
  
Case in point, Anthony Rickett tried to offer him a 'farting fudge,' which was poorly disguised as normal fudge from Honeydukes. Sometimes Cedric wished he'd let the Sorting Hat put him in Ravenclaw when it had offered. He'd only asked it to place him in Hufflepuff because a boy he'd befriended on the train had already been placed there. Henry Collins had seemed so lonely (and absolutely terrified), that Cedric couldn't bear to leave him to face a dormitory full of exuberant strangers all alone. Over the last few years, they'd become best friends, staying close even when other, more popular students seemed to flock to Cedric just because of his looks, his good grades, or because he was pretty good at Quidditch.  
  
"Hey, Ced, have some of my mum's fudge instead," Henry knocked the trick candy out of Cedric's hand, and passed him a clumsily wrapped cardboard box instead. Henry's family was poor, but he was constantly giving Cedric homemade goodies that his mum had sent for him.  
  
They used to trade such treats, but Cedric's mum had been too sick to do much baking, or anything else, for the last two or three months. Breast cancer was almost unheard of among purebloods, but Cedric's mum was a half-blood, and the disease ran in her mother's family. She'd been diagnosed almost a year ago. "Happy Birthday, Ced," Henry added, giving him a quick one-armed hug while no one was looking.  
  
"Thanks, Henry," Cedric smiled gratefully at his only real friend, firmly reminding himself exactly why he was a Hufflepuff.    
  
***  
  
The third time, as they say, was the charm. Hermione was racing through the halls, hoping to reach the girls' restroom before she started crying. She'd just overheard some of her classmates making fun of her again, and she wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Since that sort of thing didn't happen very often, even in the Wizarding world, she'd settle for hiding where those stupid boys couldn't follow.  
  
As she rounded the final corner before her destination, she slammed into an unexpected obstacle. Her books, parchment and quills flew everywhere, and she fell hard, landing on her tailbone. Just what she needed. She took one look at her belongings, which were now scattered everywhere, and the hurt and frustration she'd already been feeling finally overwhelmed her. She promptly burst into tears.  
  
"Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry," a slightly familiar voice mumbled. She peeked up through her hair, which had fallen over her face, into the most beautiful gray eyes she'd ever seen. "Are you alright?" The owner of said eyes, a slightly older boy with coppery brown hair, leaned down and offered his hand, gently pulling her to her feet. He was quite handsome, and Hermione looked away from his face quickly so he wouldn't think she was staring.  
  
She glanced at his house insignia, and suddenly realized why she recognized his voice. "It's you!" She blurted excitedly, wiping her eyes, tears forgotten. She'd realized that the boy who had assisted her upon her arrival at Hogwarts was a Hufflepuff as soon as she saw the pattern of her own Gryffindor scarf, but she didn't really know what he looked like, so she hadn't been able to seek him out.  
  
"Um, yeah?" He looked utterly confused, tilting his head questioningly, and squinting at her.  
  
Hermione mentally slapped herself on the forehead. Of course he wouldn't remember her at all. Then, she looked a bit closer, and realized she _had_ seen his face before. She'd been walking across the courtyard on her birthday, missing her parents, and feeling a bit lonely and sorry for herself, when a group of students had suddenly burst into the birthday song.  
  
She'd almost tripped, wondering for a moment if they'd somehow discovered what she'd tried to keep a secret since primary school.  (Among other reasons she'd tried to hide her age was the fact that the other students at her old school had teased her for being older, spreading rumors that she'd been held back, and saying that's why she knew everything in class. She'd hoped to avoid that here at Hogwarts). When she'd cautiously stopped and looked over at the singers, she was relieved to find that the raucous group was singing to a mortified looking older boy. _This_ boy.  
  
"Oh, wait...I know you! Your name is Hermione, right?" He asked, actually perking up a bit. "You found the boat launch, I see..." he added, winking.  
  
"Thanks to you," Hermione smiled, then quickly bent to pick up her things...and hide her blush.  
  
"Let me..." he pulled his wand from his pocket, and mumbled something under his breath. Her books, notes and quills immediately flew into his arms, forming a neat pile. "Here you go. I'm sorry I knocked you down. I was a little distracted."  
  
"Thank you," Hermione took the stack from him, and shrank it all down like she normally did, shoving it into her bag. She'd been too upset over Ron Weasley's harsh words to do so earlier.  
  
"That was pretty impressive. I thought you were a first year?" The boy asked softly.  
  
"I am." Hermione shrugged. "I don't really have any friends here, so I study a lot. Or maybe I don't have any friends _because_ I study a lot."  
  
"You have me." He shrugged uncertainly. "If you want," he added quietly, looking down at his feet like he thought she might actually say no.  
  
"I don't even know your name," Hermione admitted, smiling shyly. "And how did you know mine?"  
  
"I'm Cedric," he said, grinning sheepishly. "And I learned yours when you were sorted. I was..." he hesitated slightly, then mumbled,  "I was kind of hoping you'd end up in Hufflepuff."  
  
Hermione's eyes widened, then she burst out laughing.  
  
"What's so funny?" Cedric asked, looking a little hurt.  
  
"Oh god, it's so stupid," Hermione muttered, blushing. "The hat offered to put me pretty much anywhere I wanted, but..." she trailed off, embarrassed to tell him about her mistake.  
  
"But...what?" He asked curiously. By this point, they were all alone in the corridor, so he leaned against the wall, completely focused on her.  
  
Pleasantly surprised by someone willingly wanting to spend time with her, Hermione stared at him for a second before gathering her nerve and confessing, "I wanted to be put in _your_ house, but I didn't know which one you were in. It was so dark on the platform, and I couldn't see your face. I thought your scarf was gold and red..."  
  
Cedric stared at her for a moment, and she felt her cheeks turn even redder. Finally, he gave her a teasing grin, and joked, "Well, I guess we see why you're not in Ravenclaw."  
  
Hermione narrowed her eyes, trying to look dignified, but having trouble trying not to laugh. "I'm not sure proper color identification...in the dark, no less...is a requirement for Ravenclaw. It was so dark, I don't know how you could recognize _me_. Besides, I suspect most of Gryffindor wishes I'd been put in Ravenclaw. Or anywhere else..."  
  
"Your hair," he replied, tweaking one of her curls. "And I'm pretty sure that proper color recognition is a requirement to pass year one of primary school." He laughed, and Hermione huffed indignantly. "I'm just teasing," he grinned, then frowned slightly. "The other Gryffindors must be idiots if they don't like you."  
  
Hermione raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was being so nice. "I should probably leave while you still think so."  
  
"Wow, great self esteem you've got there," Cedric muttered, frowning.  
  
"Self awareness maybe?" Hermione sighed. "It's not just the Gryffindors, it's pretty much my whole year. I just don't understand them. They're all interested in such silly, childish things." Tilting her head slightly, she asked, "Your birthday was last month, right? I saw your friends singing to you on my birthday. You must be older than your classmates, too, but you seem to have loads of friends."  
  
"Your birthday is September 19th, too?" Cedric raised his eyebrows. She nodded. "Wow. Small world, huh?" He grinned sheepishly, and leaned closer. "I'll tell you a secret...I don't really have that many friends, either. They're all just acquaintances, really. Hardly any of those people you saw me with even know that-" he cut off abruptly, and looked down at his hands.  
  
Hermione noticed for the first time that he had a crumpled piece of parchment wrapped tightly around his wand. He slowly unrolled it, and offered it her. "What's this?" She asked, seeing the sadness that had crept into his eyes. She was hesitant to pry into its cause.  
  
"News from home. About my mum..." His voice cracked, and he tilted his head back, blinking rapidly.  
  
"I don't think I should read your private mail." Hermione frowned, trying to give it back. "You barely know me."  
  
"I barely know _anyone_ , really," he muttered bitterly. "Besides, like you said, you have no friends, so who are you going to tell?"  
  
"That's lovely," Hermione smirked slightly. "Are you always this nice?" She could tell he didn't really mean to insult her, so she just smoothed out the parchment a bit and read the letter, which turned out to be from his father.  
  
It wasn't good news. The letter had several suspicious blotches, and the handwriting was extremely messy. Cedric's dad had obviously been crying when he wrote it.  
  
_Dear Cedric,_  
  
_The last time I wrote to you, I told you I'd be taking your Mum to see a muggle specialist. I hate to have to tell you that Doctor Fisher has confirmed that the cancer is still there. I'm afraid that it is far more advanced than the Healers at St Mungo's previously thought. Doctor Fisher says that the only possible treatment at this point in time is to perform an operation called a double mastectomy, followed by radiation treatments and chemotherapy. He says all of this needs to be done as soon as possible._  
  
_Your Mum swears that this is a fairly common procedure among muggle women. She is insistent upon undergoing the operation, so it will be done early next Wednesday morning._  
  
_I've owled Professor Dumbledore to arrange for you to come home immediately. Your Mum wants you here. I will contact you as soon as I hear from Dumbledore. Please prepare to come home either tomorrow night or Saturday morning, as your Mum and I miss you, and it would cheer her greatly to spend time with you before her procedure._  
  
_With all my love,_  
  
_Dad_  
  
Hermione finished reading, and slowly raised her eyes from the tear-stained parchment. Cedric was staring at her, his eyes wet with unshed tears of his own.  
  
Hermione wasn't used to having to deal with extreme emotions, her own or those of others. At a complete loss now as to what to say, she awkwardly held the letter out to her new friend. The parchment rattled audibly, and she realized her hands were trembling. "I'm so sorry," she murmured quietly when he finally accepted it.  
  
"You're a muggleborn, right?" He asked, apparently out of the blue.

"Uh...yeah," Hermione said, nodding. "How did you know that?"

"You've got ballpoint pens in your bag, and only muggleborns or half-bloods use them. But most half-bloods know about Hagrid from their parents before they come here," he explained casually. Taking a deep breath, he hesitantly asked, "So, do you...do you know what he means?" after he'd shoved the letter in his pocket.  
  
"Um...which part?" Hermione asked, stalling. She really didn't want to be talking about something as scary as breast cancer, especially to a cute boy whose mum had it.

  
"What are they going to do to her?" Cedric whispered, his voice cracking again. He was staring at her like a wounded animal, almost like he was ready to bolt at the first wrong move.  
  
Hermione licked her lips nervously. "Well, she has breast cancer, right?" She asked, hoping to lead him to the correct conclusion without her actually having to tell a boy she barely knew that a muggle doctor was going to remove both of his mother's breasts.  
  
"Y-yeah." He nodded miserably. "She was diagnosed about a year ago, but the Healers at St. Mungo's don't seem to have anything that really works to treat cancer. I think they just don't try very hard, because purebloods almost never get it. Most half-bloods and muggleborns end up just going to muggle doctors, like my Mum did." His brow furrowed slightly as he added, "I-I think she waited too long." He lowered his his gaze to the floor, and whispered, "Is she going to be okay? Are they going to...to...c-cut it out of her?"  
  
Hermione was glad he wasn't looking at her anymore, because she flinched involuntarily at his words. "Yes, they're going to have to cut her to remove the affected tissue. But like your Dad said, it's a pretty common procedure, so she should come through the surgery just fine. The other treatments he mentioned are to kill any traces of the cancer that the surgeon might miss." She tried to sound comforting, but she knew from a project she'd done last year in primary school that if his mother was in an advanced stage, and just now seeking proper treatment, her prognosis wasn't very good.  
  
"But will it work? Does all of this usually work?" He looked up again, pinning her with a searching look.  
  
Hermione sighed. "It works quite often, when it's done soon enough," she replied, knowing he'd probably see through her weak attempt to be optimistic.  
  
Cedric bit his lower lip, his whole face twisting as he let out an anguished moan. "It's _not_ soon enough. She waited _so_ long."  
  
Hermione was normally very reserved when it came to physical contact, especially with her peers, and most especially with peers she'd just met. Therefore, she was surprised by her own actions when she wrapped her arms around Cedric, hugging him tightly.  
  
He let out a whimper, then hugged her back, burying his face against her shoulder as he began to weep. "I know she's going to die," he mumbled almost incoherently. "They want me to go home because she's dying." His tears quickly escalated into harsh, wracking sobs that shook his slender frame.  
  
Hermione didn't have any genuine reassurances to offer him, and it wasn't in her nature to offer lies, no matter how comforting they might be, so she just held him, letting him cry through his pain. She half hoped that no one would pass by and see him like this; she half hoped that a professor, or maybe a prefect, would appear to help her figure out what she should do. She was fully aware that she was woefully unprepared to help anyone with a problem of this magnitude, and Cedric deserved to have someone far more qualified than her to help get him through this. Maybe Dumbledore would come looking for him when he received his father's message...  
  
No one came.  
  
When Cedric's heartbreaking sobs eventually tapered off, the left shoulder of Hermione's school robes and blouse were both soaked through with tears. Lifting his head, and stepping back slightly, he wiped his eyes on his sleeve, then pointed his wand at the soggy material, mumbling, " _Tergeo_! _Scourgify_!" The liquid siphoned from the fabric into his wand, leaving behind a salty residue that his second spell immediately removed. "I'm sorry about that," he croaked, his voice hoarse from crying. "You must think I'm such a prat."  
  
"No! Of course not!" Hermione exclaimed, shaking her head vehemently. "Anyone would cry in your situation, Cedric." She looked him straight in the eye as she spoke, hoping to convince him of the sincerity of her words.  
  
"I guess," he shrugged awkwardly, and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry anyway."  
  
"Stop apologizing," Hermione ordered gently, patting him briefly on the shoulder. It seemed too familiar, touching him now that he was no longer crying. She crossed her arms over her chest, searching for something, anything, to say to break the silence that had fallen between them.  
  
"You were crying when we ran into each other," he murmured after several seconds. "Why?"  
  
"It is quite literally _nothing_." Hermione smiled at him sheepishly. "I realize that now." Nothing on earth could make her burden him with her petty problems right now. In retrospect, she couldn't believe she'd gotten so upset over what Ron had said earlier. She didn't like him very much, so why did she care what he thought of her?  
  
Cedric's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and he opened his mouth to say something, but just then Professor Quirrell came running around the same corner they'd just collided in front of. Cedric's arm shot out, and he managed to pull Hermione out of the way before she ended up reenacting the experience with the skittish professor.  
  
The nervous wizard stared at them for a moment, then cleared his throat and stammered, "Wh-wh-what are you d-d-doing here? A-all students are s-s-supposed to b-b-be in their d-d-dormitories."  
  
Cedric raised his eyebrows. Glancing at his watch, he asked, " Excuse me, Professor, but isn't it time for dinner?"  
  
Professor Quirrell grew strangely calm all of the sudden. Pulling himself up to his full height, he looked down his nose at them, pointed toward the stairwell and said, "Don't argue with me...what's your name again? Diggory, isn't it? I told you to go to your dormitories, and you _will_  obey me."  
  
"Do you mind if I ask why? It's Halloween, and curfew isn't for hours," Cedric asked.  
  
"Don't cross me, boy!" Professor Quirrell practically hissed, leaning down, and getting right in Cedric's face. "You might regret it someday."  
  
Cedric's eyes widened, but he seemed to be in a fighting mood, because he raised his chin, and started to open his mouth.  
  
Hermione grabbed his arm before he could say anything more. "Sorry, Professor. You'll have to excuse Cedric. He was just tutoring me in, um, Charms, and we lost track of time. He's just really hungry. Makes him cranky!" Without waiting for a response, she dragged Cedric around the corner toward the stairs.  
  
This time, they almost ran into Professor Snape, but he stopped just in time. "What are you two doing here? There's a troll in the castle! Report to your dormitories immediately!" He ordered briskly.  
  
"A troll?!" Hermione gasped. "Where?!"  
  
"Professor Quirrell didn't say anything about a troll," Cedric muttered, looking back over his shoulder.  
  
Professor Snape glanced at him sharply. "You saw Quirrell? Where?"  
  
"Just around the corner, sir." Hermione pointed. "He was headed for the forbidden wing."  
  
Professor Snape scowled darkly for a moment, then replaced the expression with a strained smile. "Thank you, Miss Granger. Now, please head to your dormitories immediately. Take care, Diggory...the troll may try to make it's way up to the cellars."  
  
Cedric gulped nervously. "Alright, Professor." Hermione cringed, remembering that the Hufflepuff dormitory was reportedly in one of the castle's upper cellars, near the kitchen.  
  
Professor Snape nodded briskly, and took off in the direction Professor Quirrell had gone, without even making sure they left in the direction they were supposed to.  
  
"What the hell was all that about?" Cedric asked as the potions professor walked away.  
  
"Shhh! He'll hear you!" Hermione grabbed his arm, and started pulling him toward the stairwell.  
  
"That was just weird!" Cedric exclaimed, waving his free hand around. "Snape was almost nice for a change, and Quirrell was being an arse. It's like they swapped brains or something. And where were they going if the troll is down in the dungeons?"  
  
"I don't care, Cedric," Hermione wailed, looking around fearfully. "We need to get to our dorms! There's a _troll_ on the loose!"  
  
He stopped flailing his arm, and smiled sympathetically at her. "Would you like me to walk you to your dorm?"  
  
Hermione bit her lip, hesitating for a second. "Yes, but you'll get in trouble."  
  
"I don't care." He shrugged carelessly. "Besides, you heard Snape...that thing could be right outside my dorm. Yours is seven floors up. I know which direction I'd rather head." He grinned sheepishly, his cheeks turning a bit pink.  
  
"Good point," Hermione smiled weakly. She suspected he was just trying to make her feel better, but she didn't care. She'd read about trolls. They were terrifying, and she had no desire to run into this one.  
  
When they reached the main stairwell, they found a chaotic rush of students trying to get upstairs to the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor dorms. Cedric put his arm around Hermione's shoulders to keep them from being separated. Unlike the crowd a few weeks earlier at the train station, this group was in a near total panic, and although Cedric was bigger than about half of the students, he wasn't strong enough to keep them from getting pushed around, and nearly trampled.  
  
Then, a huge Gryffindor boy, who looked like he might have been held back a year or two, judging by the impressive size of his beard, suddenly slammed Cedric into the railing as he passed. He fell to his knees, nearly bringing Hermione down with him. She struggled to pull him to his feet, but almost got carried away by the frantic mob surrounding them.  
  
"Twenty points from Gryffindor!" A shrill voice shrieked nearby. " _Declino_!" Suddenly the crush of bodies eased up as the oncoming students swerved around them. Hermione looked up, and found Percy Weasley standing over them. "Are you alright, Diggory?"  
  
Cedric staggered to his feet. Both knees of his tan trousers were torn, and the left was soaked with blood. "Sort of. Did anyone see the train that hit me?" He joked weakly.  
  
"It was O'Hare...I swear he's a bloody half-giant," Percy muttered, looking uncharacteristically frazzled. "What are you doing up here anyway? You're supposed to be in your dormitory...you've missed it by about five floors."  
  
"I was just escorting Granger," Cedric explained. "For all the good that turned out to be..." His cheeks flooded again as he smiled sheepishly at Hermione.  
  
"That's very noble of you, Diggory, but I think you'd best try to get to the infirmary. I can assist Granger from here."  
  
Cedric frowned, but glanced down at his knees, and didn't argue. "Sorry, Hermione," he murmured. "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow before I leave?"  
  
Hermione blushed. "Meet me in the courtyard before lunch?"  
  
"Okay," he nodded. "Thanks for earlier," he added quietly before turning to try to make his way to the infirmary. Luckily the flow of students was dwindling fast, and he quickly disappeared down the stairs.  
  
"Come along, Granger..." Percy gently grasped Hermione's elbow, and led her toward the Gryffindor Tower. When they reached the entrance, he said, "I need to go look for stragglers. You go inside, and stay there, alright?"  
  
"Alright." Hermione nodded obediently. "Thank you."  
  
He was already halfway to the stairs when she muttered the password, and stepped inside.  
  
She was met by Neville Longbottom, the only Gryffindor in her year not to make fun of her on a daily basis. "Hermione! You made it!" He exclaimed, looking relieved. Then, he looked behind her and frowned. "Where are Ron and Harry?"  
  
"How would I know?" Hermione asked confusedly. Why she would _care_ was a better question, but she kept that one to herself.  
  
"They went looking for you," Neville replied. "They were afraid you didn't hear about the troll, and they were worried."  
  
Hermione's jaw dropped. "They were worried? About me?" she asked incredulously.  
  
"Yeah." He nodded. "I think they feel bad about earlier," he mumbled guiltily. "We all do. I'm sorry." He'd been there when Ron made fun of her, but Hermione didn't hold it against him.  
  
" _You_ didn't do anything wrong," she said reassuringly. Looking back over her shoulder at the door, she took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders. "I've got to go after them. They could get hurt, and they're just wasting their time out there."  
  
"You can't!" Neville protested. "We're supposed to stay here!"  
  
"I'm not going to let someone get hurt because of me, even if they are total gits," Hermione muttered. "They'll get back here a lot faster if I find them, and let them know I'm okay."  
  
With that, she braced herself, and headed back through the portrait hole.  
  
***  
  
By the next morning, the whole school was abuzz with the story of how Harry and Ron had "rescued" Hermione from the troll. She'd been checking a second floor corridor for them when she heard the troll approaching from around a corner. She'd ducked inside the nearest door, which happened to be a girls restroom, but it had followed her.  
  
She'd thought she was well and truly done for, but then Harry and Ron had miraculously barged in, and saved her (with help from a timely reminder on how to cast a levitation spell from Hermione). Professors McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape had burst in soon after Ron managed to knock the beast unconscious with its own club.  
  
Hermione was a bit insulted that McGonagall had actually believed her ridiculous lie about having gone hunting for the troll on her own. She hadn't wanted to admit why the boys had _really_ been looking for her, as that didn't seem like a good way to win their friendship. Luckily, the older witch only took away a few points for her "poor judgement," and even gave the boys a few points each for "pure dumb luck." It was preposterous, but ultimately for the best, so Hermione just bit her tongue, and tried to look appropriately chastised.  
  
Snape had shot her a look that made it clear he knew better, but he said nothing. Quirrell was back to his usual twitchy self, and she'd begun to wonder if she'd imagined the encounter she and Cedric had with him earlier.  
  
The whole incident had one benefit...both boys were being a lot nicer to her now. They'd sat with her during every class that morning, and walked with her between classes. Hermione almost forgot that she was supposed to meet Cedric until the three were walking into the Great Hall at lunchtime.  
  
"Oh! I've got to go see someone! I'll see you after lunch!" She blurted, stopping in her tracks.  
  
"Going to ask a professor for more extra credit?" Ron asked teasingly.  
  
"No, I've got to say goodbye to a friend," Hermione replied coolly, trying to ignore her instant irritation with the redhead. "He's leaving school for a bit. His mum's quite ill."  
  
"I was just kidding, Hermione," Ron murmured, looking a bit guilty. Hermione just smiled tightly, not wanting to risk saying anything to ruin the new-found peace between them.  
  
"Tell your friend I hope his mum feels better soon," Harry chimed in a few seconds later, breaking the tension.  
  
Hermione just nodded, not wanting to tell him that it was highly unlikely. Waving to them, she hurried outside, and found Cedric sitting on one of the low walls surrounding the courtyard. He had his elbows on his knees, and his head was hanging dejectedly.  
  
"Cedric?" Hermione murmured quietly as she approached.  
  
He looked up quickly, and she winced at the huge dark circles under his eyes. "Hi." He nodded in greeting. "I was beginning to think you forgot about me," he said, smiling wryly.  
  
"No, I just got talking to someone, and lost track of time," Hermione said, feeling terrible. "I'm so sorry."  
  
"Ah...I bet you have a lot of people talking to you after your big adventure last night, huh?" He tilted his head questioningly. "How'd you end up on the second floor? I left you with Percy Weasley near the fifth floor. You were _safe_." His tone was a bit scolding, and she instantly felt both guilty and annoyed.  
  
"I went back to my dorm, and found out Harry and Ron had gone looking for me. They thought I didn't know about the troll, because I wasn't at dinner," she explained. "I couldn't let them keep looking for me...it was dangerous!"  
  
"Obviously," Cedric said dryly. "Why not send Weasley...I mean Percy...after them?"  
  
"Percy was already gone. He went to help the teachers look for the troll," Hermione replied. "There was no one else around to let them know I was alright."  
  
"I see. And Gryffindor is fresh out of seventh years, huh?" Cedric asked sarcastically. "No one but _you_ could possibly have gone looking for them with a freaking _troll_ on the loose?!"  
  
Hermione blinked, startled by his angry tone. "I'll have you know, we took care of it just fine."  
  
"We? I heard it was Weasley that knocked it out," he said dubiously.  
  
"Only after _I_ reminded him how to cast the spell!" Hermione exclaimed scornfully.  
  
They stared at each other for a moment, both frowning. Hermione was breathing hard, trying to control her temper. Then Cedric sighed heavily, and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry. It just kind of freaked me out when I heard what happened. You could have died, you know?"  
  
Hermione was immediately filled with guilt. "I'm sorry."  
  
"You don't have to be sorry." He smiled weakly. "Just don't be such a bloody Gryffindor next time," he ordered, reaching out, and playfully tugging on her tie.  
  
"So much for me being sorted there just for my color blindness," Hermione giggled.  
  
"Hey, you're braver than I am. The hat never even gave me the Gryffindor option...only Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff," Cedric said.  
  
"Aw, we could have both been Ravenclaws? That would've made more sense." Hermione grinned.  
  
"No it wouldn't. One of us doesn't know her colors, _and_ is dumb enough to go chasing after trolls," Cedric teased.  
  
"Is this how you talk to all of your friends?" Hermione smirked. "It's truly shocking that you claim not to have any..."  
  
"Sorry." He smiled sheepishly. "You're just so easy to tease."  
  
"Haha," Hermione muttered.  
  
They were both quiet for a few minutes after that. Hermione grew increasingly uncomfortable, and was about to make an excuse to go back inside when Cedric finally spoke.  
  
"I'm leaving right after my last class this afternoon," he announced quietly. "I'm not sure when I'll be back."  
  
"Oh," Hermione mumbled awkwardly. "Um, Harry said to tell you he hopes your mum feels better soon."  
  
"You told him?" Cedric sounded hurt.  
  
"Not really, no," Hermione said quickly. "I just told him a friend's mum was sick. I didn't say whose, or what was wrong with her."  
  
He seemed to relax a bit at that. "I don't want people to feel sorry for me. I don't need pity from strangers..."  
  
"I understand," Hermione murmured, though she didn't really. If it was her mum... She quickly shook the morbid thought away.  
  
"Are you cold?" Cedric asked suddenly.  
  
Hermione realized she'd shuddered at the thought of her mother dying. "No."  
  
"You should probably go grab something to eat," Cedric mumbled. "It's getting late."  
  
"What about you?" Hermione asked.  
  
"I'm really not hungry," he muttered. "I just want to sit here for a while."  
  
"Okay," Hermione smiled weakly, and turned to leave.  
  
"Hermione," he called out when she was a few meters away.  
  
"Yeah?" She looked back over her shoulder.  
  
"I'll see you when I get back." He looked sad, and sort of lost, and she had to fight to keep her eyes from filling with tears.  
  
"I'll see you Cedric," Hermione murmured, trying to smile reassuringly at him. She was afraid it was more of a grimace, but by then he was looking at the ground again anyway.  
  
Little did she know that it would be months before she saw him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will become very important later on to remember that Cedric was only two years older than Hermione. They were both born in the fall, so they both had to wait almost a full year to begin at Hogwarts. All we know about Cedric's birthday was that it was sometime after September 1st, but before the Halloween deadline for submitting names for the Triwizard Tournament. I just gave them the same birthday to be cute, really. lol
> 
> Edited 2/7/16 for typoes and such, and made up a spell for Percy to use on the stairs. No major changes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter deals with the death of a parent, and SEVERE depression, and could contain triggers for some readers.

A few days after the Christmas holidays, Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking across the snow covered courtyard when she noticed a welcome figure leaning against the back side of what she'd come to think of as Cedric's tree. "Go on ahead, I'll find you later," she murmured to the two boys.

"But I thought you were going to help with my Charms essay!" Ron protested loudly.

Hermione noticed that Harry’s eyes rolled in almost perfect synchronization with her own. She flashed him a grateful smile as he dragged the redhead away, saying, "How does it help you to have ‘Mione do your work for you all the time? You're never going to learn anything that way. Besides, I think her friend with the sick mum is finally back, so give her a break." He gave Hermione an understanding nod before he continued to lead Ron toward the castle's front entrance.

His words brought a smile to Hermione's face. Though Ron still irritated her (almost constantly), she had become very fond of Harry in the few months that they had been friends. His thoughtfulness and sincerity were almost impossible not to find endearing, even if they came with a bit of a temper (nothing as ridiculous as Ron's, thank Merlin) and a stubborn tendency to distance himself from everyone when he was troubled by something. From a few things that he had said, Hermione had an uneasy suspicion that his aunt and uncle were rather abusive toward him. She wondered why Dumbledore and the Ministry hadn't done anything about the way he was being treated at home; surely there was a magical family somewhere in the wizarding world that was willing to take Harry in. There were probably dozens...

As she drew closer to the large oak tree, Hermione's thoughts shifted from Harry to Cedric, who was slumped against the oak’s trunk. She could only see a bit of his face in profile, but he looked miserable. What was visible of his left eye was bloodshot and red-rimmed, and there was a huge, almost bruise-like dark shadow beneath it. All of this was visible against his overly pale skin, which almost glowed in the bit of shade cast by the tree's snow-laden branches. Hermione hesitated a moment, wondering if she should approach him. After all, they'd only spoken a few times before he'd gone away, and that was two months ago.

Just as she turned to slip away, he turned his head slightly, and noticed her. "Hermione?" His voice cracked slightly, and she realized he'd been crying.

Biting back a regretful sigh at having disturbed him, Hermione forced herself to smile, though she was sure it wasn't convincing. "Hi, Cedric," she murmured hesitantly. "I didn't mean to intrude, I just wanted to see if it was really you," she explained apologetically.

"You're not intruding." He smiled faintly and beckoned for her to come closer. "I'm so glad to see you. It's been a while.

Hermione walked toward him, stopping just a few feet away, and crossing her arms awkwardly over her chest. He looked even worse up close. His cheekbones were more pronounced than she remembered, and his robes seemed to hang off him. He obviously hadn't been eating, or sleeping, enough. She was well aware that it couldn't possibly mean good news as far as his mum's condition. She was reluctant to ask, so they stood in uncomfortable silence until she finally couldn't stand it anymore, blurting, "You were gone a lot longer than I thought you would be." It was pathetic; a cowardly, round-about way of asking about his mum without having the courage to actually ask. Some Gryffindor she was.

Cedric nodded slightly, and to Hermione's horror, his eyes welled with fresh tears. "She...she died," he mumbled in answer to the unspoken question. "Two weeks ago. She went downhill really fast after that stupid operation. It was too late for it to do anything but make her suffer more than she already was," he muttered bitterly, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white, and squeezing his eyes shut. A few tears leaked out between his lids, rolling slowly down his cheeks, but he ignored them.

"Oh, Cedric, I'm so sorry!" Hermione took a step closer, and pulled a handkerchief out of the front pocket of her satchel. "I don't know what to say. I can't even imagine what you're going through." She patted him gently on the arm a few times, feeling awkward and useless, then pressed the handkerchief into his hand.

"At least you're honest about it." Cedric smiled wryly and wiped his eyes. "You wouldn't believe some of the stupid things people said to us at the funeral." He rolled his eyes. "And you'd think casseroles were supposed to cure grief or something. Like anyone wants to eat Shepherd's Pie three meals a day when they're already miserable." He sighed heavily. "I don't think I ever want to see Shepherd's Pie again.

Hermione wrinkled her nose sympathetically. "I'm sure they meant well," she mumbled uncertainly. "If I was trying to cheer someone up, I'd bring chocolate."

Cedric snorted. "Well, then, I wish you lived in Ottery St. Catchpole, because the only neighbor who brought chocolate was Mrs. Weasley. That woman makes the best biscuits..."

"Ron's mum?" Hermione asked, a bit surprised to hear that the two boys lived in the same village. She was also a little annoyed that Ron hadn't told her that Cedric's mum had passed away. Then again, he had his head shoved so far up his own arse most of the time, he probably hadn't heard the news.  Or realized that when she'd referred to a friend with a sick mother, she could only mean Cedric, since he was (as far as she knew), the only student who had been out of school recently. Then again, _Harry_ had made the connection, and he didn’t even live near Cedric. "You live in the same village as the Weasleys?" She asked, trying to tamp down her irritation with the redhead.

"Yeah," Cedric nodded. "I play Quidditch with the twins sometimes during summer break. They're in my year, you know." He frowned thoughtfully for a moment. "I have to ask Madam Hooch if I can still be on the team. I missed a game."

Hermione was confused as to how they'd gone from talking about his mum to talking about Quidditch. She would never understand boys. "I'm a little surprised you came back so soon," she admitted quietly. "If it's only been two weeks..."

"I've missed so much school already. Everyone else was returning from the hols, so it seemed like a good time to slip back in." Cedric sighed, and rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. "I don't know. It seemed like a better idea than sitting at home watching Dad cry."

Hermione bit her lip, then decided there was really _nothing_ adequate she could say in response to that. "If there's anything I can do for you..." she offered tentatively, knowing there wasn't.

"Ha! Can you help me catch up on a month and a half worth of homework?" Cedric snorted softly.

"I'd love to," Hermione said honestly, "But I think your homework is probably just a little above my abilities at this point."

"True," he chuckled softly, then reached over and playfully tugged one of her curls. "I keep forgetting you're only a first year."

"Ah, well, I am mature for my age," Hermione agreed, only half-joking. "But even I haven't had quite enough time to study two years ahead." She grinned self deprecatingly. "Yet."

"Well, I guess I'll be living in the library for the rest of the year if I want to catch up then," Cedric sighed dramatically.

"It's not the worst place in the world," Hermione said, feeling a bit defensive of her favorite spot in the castle. "That's actually where I was headed when I spotted you. I'm supposed to be helping Ron and Harry with their homework."

"Oh. Well, I don't want to keep you..." Cedric frowned slightly, and she could see that whatever small progress she’d made in cheering him up was already coming undone.

"Why don't you join us?" She suggested. "The boys won't mind. They're obsessed with Quidditch, too." She grinned teasingly.

Cedric frowned thoughtfully for a moment. "I guess it can't hurt to have a little company." He reached down, picked up his satchel from behind the tree, and slung the strap over his shoulder. "After you..." he gestured toward the castle.

When they reached the library, they found Harry and Ron sitting at Hermione's favorite table. Located in an isolated corner near the back, it was more conducive to actual studying, as opposed to the socializing most students seemed to go there for. Ron's forehead wrinkled in confusion when he looked up and saw Cedric standing behind Hermione. "Are you lost, Diggory?"

"Hello to you, too, Weasley," Cedric sneered slightly. Though he seemed to respect Percy, and obviously liked the twins, he didn't seem terribly fond of their youngest brother.

"Ron, are you capable of being polite? _Ever_?" Hermione asked coldly.

Harry spoke up quickly, probably hoping to nip yet another argument between his two friends in the bud. Hermione almost felt sorry for him sometimes. "Please ignore Ron. I think his mother gave up on teaching him manners shortly after birth. She was probably exhausted from overdoing it with Percy, which kind of explains the twins, too," he joked, elbowing Ron in the ribs.

"Hey!" Ron protested. "I didn't mean to be rude, I was just wondering what he's doing back here. There's a bunch of 'Puffs hanging out at one of the front tables. I can hear them from here."

"Exactly," Hermione sniffed, cringing internally at how haughty she sounded. "Cedric wants to actually _study_."

"Ah, well, I guess that's the only reason for someone to come to this godsforsaken corner. No one but Hermione would be caught dead back here." Ron grinned at Cedric.

Hermione winced at his poor choice of words, but Cedric just snorted, which she was beginning to notice he seemed to do rather frequently. "So, anyway, he's going to join us if you don't mind." She glared at Ron, hoping to make it clear that he really had no choice in the matter.

The redhead just shrugged. "Are you still going to help me with my essay?" He asked hopefully.

"Yes, Ronald," Hermione sighed heavily as she dropped into the chair across from him. Cedric settled into the chair beside her, directly across from Harry, and pulled out a book, parchment and quill.

Before he could start reading, Harry cleared his throat. "Um, Cedric, I know we haven't really met, but, um, Oliver told me about your mum. I'm really sorry."

Cedric stiffened, then slowly looked up from his book, and nodded stiffly at Harry. "Thanks," he mumbled softly.

"What happened to your mum?" Ron asked bluntly.

"Honestly, Ronald, do you ever pay attention to anything besides food and Quidditch?" Hermione grunted irritably. Even Cedric looked a bit startled by her outburst, but he didn't answer Ron's question, so Hermione continued. "His mum passed away a few weeks ago. _Your_ mum attended her funeral. How did you not know about it? Even Harry knew."

Ron had the decency to look a little ashamed. "I didn't get talk to Mum much over the hols. I stayed here, same as Harry, remember?" Turning to Cedric, he said, "I'm really sorry, Cedric. I just hadn't heard..."

"S'alright, really," Cedric mumbled, looking uncomfortable. "I'm not really trying to spread it around the whole castle anyway."

Ron shot Hermione a pointed look. She sighed, and rubbed her forehead to try to ease a headache that was rapidly developing.  "I'm sorry I snapped at you. I forgot that you didn't go home." 

"Yeah, whatever," Ron shrugged carelessly. "So, I need to write two feet on the inventor of ‘wingardium leviosa,’ and I don't even know who that was."

Hermione wearily shook her head and dragged him to the spell crafting section to look for a book with information about Jarleth Hobart.

***

Despite their rather rocky start, Ron and Cedric (and Harry) gradually became friends over the next several weeks. Ron and Harry sometimes joined Hermione and Cedric in the library, but the three boys also spent some time on the Quidditch pitch.  Oliver Wood, the twins and a handful of other students from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff had started playing casual pick-up games after class whenever the weather allowed, though Cedric didn't join in very often, claiming he had homework. Hermione and the other two Gryffindors sometimes went off without Cedric, frequently getting themselves into trouble in the process, but their antics together barely registered in the older boy’s mind.

Cedric had been throwing every bit of energy he had into his school work. He had lied to Hermione about the extent of it...he'd kept up with his classes most of the time he was home; right up until his mum had passed away. He actually had very little make up work to do, but he just couldn't bear to spend time with his friends; pretending to enjoy himself when all he wanted to do was crawl into a deep, dark hole and die was exhausting. So he spent hours upon hours hidden away in their private study corner, using the fact that he was supposedly behind as an excuse to skip meals, and stay in the library until nearly curfew. Only when he was literally forced to by the school rules would he finally drag himself back to his dorm room, and lie down on his bed. He was completely drained, both physically and emotionally, but sleep eluded him. He spent night after night staring at the stone ceiling over his bed, listening to Henry's soft snoring from the bed beside his. When his roommates woke up each morning, he would pretend he had just woken up, too, but in reality, he was lucky to get one or two hours of restless sleep a night. He kept dreaming about his mother, looking just as pale and fragile as she had in her final days. In his dreams, she would beg him to save her; her voice a hoarse whisper, just like it had been when she'd said goodbye to him. Like it had been when she'd asked him to be strong for her...

It was her last request, and he was failing her. Deep down, he realized that he was barely functioning, but he couldn't seem to fight off the depression that was eating away at him more and more each day.

Henry began commenting on how little he was eating. He didn’t want his friend to worry, but he just couldn't bring himself to eat anything, so he learned how to cast a silent, wandless vanishing spell, making the food on his plate disappear in small amounts when no one was looking. He didn't think it would fool anyone for long, since he was well aware of the fact he looked like shit, but Henry seemed to actually fall for it, so he just kept doing it. After a while, he didn't even have to think about it, and he stopped even trying to force anything down his throat before banishing each meal.

Weeks passed like this; he was literally living on water, and a few sips of pumpkin juice at each meal. Fluids were the only thing he could keep down. He was starting to feel weaker and weaker by the day, and he was surprised that he didn't feel hungry at all anymore, but thought his body had somehow adjusted to not eating. Then, one day during Quidditch practice, he started to see black spots, and almost fell from his broom while flying a few hundred feet above the Quidditch pitch. His teammates noticed, and threatened to send him to the infirmary. After that, he started to force himself to eat at least a bite or two before practice, just to make sure it didn't happen again. He was having trouble spotting the snitch though, and his flying was sloppy and lethargic at best. He was dreading their impending game against Ravenclaw, which was coming up in a few weeks. He didn't want to let his team down, so he started practicing alone late in the evening when no one else was around to see, then stumbling to bed, completely exhausted, only to find that he still couldn't sleep.

He knew deep down that something had to give, and soon, but he didn't know what to do about any of it. His mum had wanted him to be strong, so he didn't say anything to anyone; he just kept pretending that everything was fine, hoping that eventually it would be.

***

It was late March, and Hermione had pretty much moved into the library. She was already panicking about finals, and it gave her an excuse to spend time with Cedric. The older boy had thrown himself into catching up on his course work with an eerie intensity that she suspected had just as much to do with taking his mind off his mum as it did with any real concern he might have about his grades. She knew from watching him in the Great Hall that he wasn't eating very much, if at all. She couldn't see his plate from the Gryffindor table, so she wasn't completely sure, but it seemed like she almost never saw him take a bite. Judging by the ever present circles under his eyes, he wasn't sleeping either. Ron was as oblivious to his new friend's emotional state as he was to everything else, but Harry shared Hermione's concerns. He'd mentioned it to her one morning after they both watched Cedric stare blankly at his breakfast plate, without eating a single bite, until the warning bell rang to signal that it was time to leave for first period. "We should tell Madam Pomfrey or someone about this," Harry murmured as they stood up and gathered their bags. "I swear, he looks even thinner than last week. And I heard one of his teammates say he almost fainted or something at practice a few weeks ago."

"I don't know. I don't think he'd be very happy with us," Hermione sighed, chewing her lip anxiously. She knew that Cedric’s privacy was very important to him, but she had just about reached the tipping point where her concern for his health outweighed her fear of his potential wrath. Deep down, she'd been half hoping that one of the professors would notice his deteriorating condition, but strangely enough, none of them had.

"Better angry than dead, right?" Harry asked, grimacing. They both watched as Cedric finally came out of his daze and picked up his bag. He hadn't eaten a thing, and didn't speak to anyone as he wandered out of the Great Hall.

"I'm going to go see Madam Pomfrey during free period," Hermione decided aloud. "He's going to get really sick if he keeps this up."

"I'll come with you," Harry offered as they left the Great Hall to head for Potions.

That afternoon, they headed straight to the infirmary after lunch. Any doubts they might have had about 'ratting' on their friend had vanished when they saw Cedric nearly fall asleep with his head on his plate during lunch, which, unsurprisingly, he hadn't eaten. They'd asked Ron to join them, but he'd had to go to the library to finish up a Transfiguration essay (one that the they had both finished days ago). At least he was doing most of his own homework these days.

They found Madam Pomfrey treating a fifth year girl with bad burns over most of her upper body. It looked like the nurse was going to be busy for quite a while, and they were reluctant to interrupt due to the injured girl’s near continuous moans and whimpers.

"Professor Sprout, maybe?" Harry asked as they quietly slipped out of the room. "She's his head of house..."

"She’s whose head of house?" They spun around, and found Professor Dumbledore standing in a nearby alcove, looking out a window that overlooked the Quidditch pitch. He didn't even turn to look at them.

Hermione swallowed nervously. "Cedric Diggory, Sir. He's a third year Hufflepuff..." Dumbledore glanced at her, his face unreadable. "His mum died just before Christmas, and I'm afraid he's having a really hard time."

"Ah, of course," Dumbledore nodded sadly. "And you've come to see Poppy about him? Is he ill?"

"Not yet," Harry answered, "But he's not eating. I mean, he's not eating _at all._ We've been watching him for the last few days, because he looks just dreadful, but we haven't seen him eat more than a bite or two in the last three days. He almost passed out during lunch just now. And we don't think he's really been sleeping much, either."

Dumbledore frowned worriedly. "I was afraid something like this might happen. I asked his professors to let me know if he had any trouble keeping up on his course work, but they've all reported that his grades have been exceptional, as usual." Tapping his lips thoughtfully, he gazed up at the ceiling for a long moment, then nodded slightly. Focusing on them, he said, "I didn't think to observe his eating habits. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. He is indeed lucky to have friends like you."

"I just hope he thinks so," Hermione mumbled.

"What are you going to do, Professor?" Harry asked anxiously.

"I'll speak with Poppy, and his father. We'll figure out the best way to help him deal with his grief," Dumbledore replied solemnly. "If you'll excuse me..." He bowed regally, and turned away to enter the infirmary.

Harry and Hermione exchanged relieved looks, then headed toward the library.

***

Cedric was trying to help Ron with an essay, despite the fact that he felt like he might pass out at any moment. He’d felt light headed all day, and even weaker than usual. He noticed his hands were shaking when he pointed out something in the book in front of Ron, and pulled them back immediately. It was too late; for once, Ron noticed that something was wrong. “Are you alright?” he asked. “You look awful. Do you need to go to the infirmary?”

“I’m fine,” Cedric mumbled, keeping his eyes on the book as the words swam dizzyingly before his eyes.

“You don’t look fine,” Ron persisted. "You're trembling."

“Do you want me to help you with your essay or not?” Cedric growled.

Just then, Harry and Hermione approached their table. Cedric saw Ron look up at them eagerly, his eyes wide and anxious. "Look, here's 'Mione. She can help me with this. Now will you go to the infirmary?" He asked, nudging Cedric.

"I told you, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired," Cedric sighed impatiently, barely nodding a greeting to Hermione and Harry. “I do need to work on my own homework, though,” he said pointedly, pulling out a scroll of parchment, and spreading it on the table. It was supposed to be his arithmancy homework, but it was covered with messy, chicken-like scratches that were completely unlike his usual neat penmanship.

Hermione dropped into the empty chair beside him, while Harry settled in across from him. Cedric tensed slightly, suddenly feeling caged in. "You need to go to the infirmary, Cedric," Hermione urged hesitantly, putting her hand over his to stop him from writing.

"I'm fine!" He exclaimed angrily, jerking his hand away, and standing so abruptly that he knocked his chair over. "I just haven't been sleeping very well!" He swayed slightly, and leaned against the table as his vision darkened around the edges.

"Or eating..." Harry shot him a pointed look. Cedric froze. Apparently he hadn't fooled everyone.

"We told Dumbledore," Hermione confessed softly. "You might as well go up there. They're going to come for you soon anyway."

Cedric stared at her in horror. This couldn't be happening. He'd been doing so well, and he knew if they'd just back off, and give him some time, he'd be fine. Above all, he was irritated with himself, because he had obviously failed miserably in his attempts to behave like everything was okay. He found himself lashing out at his friends, instead. "You went behind my back?! I thought we were friends?!" he yelled furiously, taking a rather wobbly step away from the table.

Madam Pince appeared around the corner of a nearby bookcase. They all held their breath, expecting the librarian to scold them, but she just frowned slightly, and said, "Mister Diggory, I need you to come with me."

"I need to finish my homework," he protested stubbornly.

"It can wait, Cedric," Madam Pince said gently. Despite her normally stern demeanor, she did have a soft spot for a few students; her use of Cedric's first name proved that he was one of the rare few. "Please come with me. The Headmaster has requested that I escort you to the infirmary."

"Since when is the Headmaster a healer?" Cedric snapped sarcastically, even as he reluctantly began to gather up his books.

"Cedric-" Hermione began quietly, reaching to help him.

"I don't want to talk to you," he snarled, snatching the parchment with his pitiful excuse for Arithmancy homework from beneath her fingertips. He couldn't face her. He felt like he'd disappointed not just his mother, but everyone. Feeling humiliated, he scooped up the rest of his things in a haphazard pile, and shoved everything into his bag. Nodding stiffly to Madam Pince, he began walking toward the library's entrance.

"You're good friends. He'll get over it," he heard the librarian say reassuringly before following him.

He had expected the librarian to let him walk to the infirmary himself, and had hopes of sneaking off somewhere...maybe the Quidditch pitch, until this all blew over. Unfortunately, she insisted on accompanying him all the way to the infirmary, where Madam Pomfrey was waiting at the door. To his horror, not only was Dumbledore waiting inside, but so was his father, looking tired and teary-eyed.

"Cedric!" His father rushed over to him immediately, and tried to hug him.

"Dad...I'm fine. This is all some stupid misunderstanding. My friend Hermione got all worried over nothing. You know how girls are..." Cedric protested, snorting derisively.

"Just the same, Mister Diggory, we'd appreciate it if you'd let Poppy examine you, just to be sure. You do look a bit run down..." Dumbledore said calmly, raising one hand in a soothing gesture, like Cedric was some sort of wild animal, about to pounce.

Cedric knew there was no way he could let them do that without the cat being let out of the bag completely. "Dad, please. This is ridiculous. Tell them I'm fine!" He begged his father, who looked at him almost confusedly for a moment. Cedric knew that his father had been...mentally adrift, so to speak, since his mother became ill. For a moment, he actually thought he had convinced him. "No, Cedric. They're right. You look...well, frankly, you look horrible, son. Let Madam Pomfrey check you over."

It was all over after that. Madam Pomfrey had barely begun casting her diagnostic spells when she began tutting disapprovingly. "Young man, when is the last time you ate anything?"

Cedric couldn't actually remember, but he lied and said, "This morning!"

Madam Pomfrey shook her head, pursing her lips in a disbelieving frown, "Not according to this." Turning to his father and Dumbledore (at least Madam Pince had left so she wasn't there to witness this), she said, "Cedric is severely malnourished. I don't know how this could have happened..." she trailed off, shaking her head again.

"What?" Cedric's father exclaimed sharply. "This is a boarding school...isn't 'boarding' supposed to include feeding your students?"

Clearing her throat, Madam Pomfrey said, "Everyone deals with grief differently. I suspect Cedric hasn't been feeling very hungry since your wife's passing."

"But shouldn't someone here have made sure that he ate anyway?" Cedric's father yelled. "You're supposed to take care of him!" Tears were now flowing freely down his cheeks, and he looked years older than when Cedric had last seen him. Cedric's heart sank as he realized for the first time how his actions might affect his father. Something inside him abruptly gave up trying to fulfill his mother's request to be strong. Moaning softly, he drew his knees to his chest, and lowered his head to rest on them as he wrapped his arms tightly around his legs.

"Amos, let's go discuss this in Poppy's office. We're upsetting Cedric..." Dumbledore suggest softly.

Cedric tried to listen in on the conversation that followed, but he could only catch a few words here and there, and most of them filled him with dread. "Force feeding," being one phrase that had him eyeing the door. Then, he heard, "admitted to St. Mungo's immediately.” He was on his feet before he even realized he was moving. His head swam upon standing up so quickly, and dark shadows crept into the perimeter of his vision again as the floor rushed up to meet his head. He heard Madam Pomfrey's office door bang open, hitting the wall, and his father’s voice shouting his name as if he was at the other end of a very long tunnel.

Everything went black.

***

By supper time, the news was all over the school. Cedric had been taking to St. Mungo's, and now everyone knew that his mother had died, and that he'd nearly starved himself to death in his grief. Hermione was horrified that she'd inadvertently allowed her friend's private life to be spread to the entire school. Her conscience was barely soothed when Professor Sprout took her and Harry aside in Herbology the next day to thank them for bringing the situation to the faculty's attention. She confirmed that Cedric's condition had been nearly critical when he was examined by the specialists at St Mungo's, but thanks to _them_ , he was expected to make a full recovery. However, he probably wouldn't return to Hogwarts during the current term.

Hermione slipped into a slight depression of her own for the first few weeks of Cedric's second absence. It seemed like everywhere she went, people were whispering about him. His friend Henry kept giving her dirty looks until Ron went off on the older boy, pointing out (quite loudly) that she and Harry had paid better attention to his so-called best friend than he had, and that he should be thanking them for saving Cedric's life, rather than giving them the stink eye. Hermione felt a bit more fond of the redhead after that.

Soon, her attention was distracted by the mystery surrounding the three headed dog on the third floor, the secret object it was protecting, and Snape's suspicious behavior. Once she figured out who Nicolas Flamel was, and that the item must therefore be the sorcerer's stone, all of the pieces fell into place rather quickly, including the strange apparition Harry had seen in the Forbidden Forest during their detention so long ago. _Voldemort_...was he really back?!

After the terrifying events beneath the trap door near the end of term, Hermione had nearly forgotten all about her guilt over 'betraying' Cedric. She just hoped he would be back in the fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little (okay, a LOT) depressing, but I promise the story starts getting lighter after this.
> 
> Edited 2/8/16 for grammar issues and typoes. No major changes


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter (and all of the others) I tried my best to stick to the timeline of the corresponding book as much as possible, but I may have tweaked the dates of some events like when Hermione and the boys drank the Polyjuice and when Hermione was petrified. This is mainly because I no longer have my copies of the books (not by choice) and couldn't find the actual dates anywhere online, so I had to guess roughly when some things happened. I don't think it really affects much of anything, though. No more than shoving Cedric in the mix, anyway. lol

Cedric almost wished he was back at St Mungo's, or maybe even in Azkaban. Okay, maybe that was taking it too far, but ever since he'd arrived at King's Cross earlier, it seemed like everyone had been staring at him. He'd managed to hide for a while (he wasn't ashamed to admit that was exactly what he'd been doing when he took over half an hour to change into his uniform once the train had started on its way). But now, he had no more excuses, and he had waited too long to try to find himself a private compartment, so he was stuck walking up and down the length of the train in order to avoid having to sit with anyone.  
  
He never should have listened to his counselor at St Mungo's. He wasn't ready for this, but she'd insisted that he didn't have anything to be embarrassed about. She'd told him repeatedly over the summer that his grief had been a completely natural reaction, and that no one would think less of him in any way. Despite her words, he felt stupid, and didn't know how he could face anyone just yet. So, instead, here he was, pacing restlessly in the corridor as the train drew closer and closer to Hogsmeade.  
  
What he dreaded the most was facing Hermione and Harry. They'd noticed something was wrong when no one else had, and he knew he owed them his life. The healers at St Mungo's had told him that his heart had been so weakened from malnourishment and lack of sleep, that if he'd gone even a few more days without eating, he could have dropped dead. His friends had saved his life, and he'd yelled at them for caring enough to save him. He felt so ashamed. Hermione had written to him a few times, but he had no idea what to say to her, so he'd never replied. He just hoped he could put off talking to them a little longer. Just until he could figure out what to say...how to make up for his horrid behavior.  
  
Luck wasn't on his side. "Cedric!" Hermione's voice called out just as he was about to pass from one car to the next. He slowly turned around, and saw her running toward him. She looked happy, if not a little nervous, and he couldn't believe she would be that eager to see him after how he'd treated her the previous year. He was also somewhat shocked to see how much older she looked. She had grown a few inches since he'd last seen her, and she was starting to develop a hint of curves in some interesting places. This threw him even more off-kilter than he already had been.  
  
"Yes?" He replied, crossing his arms to hide the fact that his hands were shaking, and trying to sound casual. It came out sounding much colder than he'd intended, and he cringed internally.  
  
She'd noticed his tone, and shrank back somewhat fearfully. "I...I just wanted to say hello. I haven't seen you...and you didn't reply to my letters..." she stammered.  
  
Guilt tied a painful knot in Cedric's stomach. He struggled to find the words to explain why he hadn't answered the letters; to tell her how horrible he felt about everything. All that came out was, "I didn't have anything to say to you." No...that's not what he meant! He scrambled to find a better way to word it, but the damage was done; her face crumpled, and she turned and ran off in the direction she had come from. Cedric covered his eyes, shaking his head in disgust at his idiocy, then dragged his hand slowly down over his face. Why couldn't he talk to her without making things worse?! It was going to be a long year...  
  
***  
  
Hermione fought back tears as she made her way down the corridor, trying to find a place to sit. She had been searching the train for signs of her friends, but she hadn’t found a trace of Harry, and Cedric was obviously still mad at her. At this point, she’d settle for finding Ron, but he was also an apparent no-show. To make matters worse, every compartment on this end of the train was already occupied, and none of them with anyone she could call a friend.  
  
“Hey, Hermione!” a female voice called out as she passed another nearly full compartment, which she’d barely glanced at in her growing distress. Looking back, she was pleasantly surprised to find Padma Patil standing in the doorway, beckoning her closer. “Come sit with us!” the pretty Ravenclaw said, gesturing again.  
  
Hermione blinked rapidly, trying to banish her tears as she forced a smile on her face. “Th-thanks,” she murmured, feeling awkward when she found her roommates, Lavender Brown, and Padma’s twin sister Parvati, sitting in the compartment. She’d never really talked to them much, despite having shared a room with them the previous year. For some reason even she didn’t understand, she’d always found it easier to talk to boys, who at least tended to talk about things that made sense, even if they didn’t personally interest Hermione. The two fashionable (and slightly boy-crazy) girls might as well have been from another planet for all their talk about makeup and clothing. She might have tried to find an excuse to leave if not for the compartment’s other occupant. “Hi, Ginny, remember me? We met in Diagon Alley...” she asked. She hadn't really talked to the other girl when she'd run into the Weasleys while doing her school shopping, but she hoped Ron’s little sister might know where he was.  
  
“Of course. Hi, Hermione,” the younger girl answered somewhat shyly. From the way she was sitting...as close to the window as possible, with her legs turned ever so slightly away from Lavender, who was seated beside her, Hermione suspected the redhead had been in the compartment first, and the older girls had taken over.  
  
“Do you know where Ron and Harry are? I’ve looked everywhere...” As she spoke, she sat down across from Ginny since Parvati and Lavender had already resumed a conversation they’d apparently been previously absorbed in about hair removal spells, and Padma already had her nose deeply buried in a book about ancient druids.  
  
“I’m not sure.” Ginny frowned slightly. “They’re here somewhere.” She shrugged slightly. “I haven’t seen them since we got to King’s Cross, now that you mention it. But I know H-Harry made it out of the car...I saw him with his trunk as we were walking in.”  
  
Hermione raised an eyebrow slightly when the younger girl stumbled over Harry’s name, but said nothing, not wanting to embarrass her. “They must be changing their clothes or something,” she murmured, though she still had an uneasy feeling that something was wrong. And she was still devastated by Cedric’s cold demeanor toward her. Feeling her eyes beginning to fill again, she quickly turned her head toward the window.  
  
“I’m sure they’re fine...” Ginny said reassuringly.  
  
Hermione looked up and found the other girl looking at her questioningly. Realizing her tears probably did look strange if they were attributed to simply not being able to find her friends, she mumbled. “Oh, I know. I...I’m not upset about _them_.”  
  
Ginny frowned slightly, then moved to sit between Hermione and Padma. “What’s wrong?” she asked gently, placing her hand comfortingly on Hermione’s arm.  
  
Hermione bit her lip, glancing around at the other girls. Lavender and Parvati were now arguing heatedly about something in a magazine, and Padma was so absorbed in her book that she probably wouldn’t notice a bomb going off. Hermione smiled to herself, thinking she should make an effort to get to know the Ravenclaw a bit better in the future. Shifting her attention back to Ginny, she said, “Um...well, you know Cedric Diggory, right?”  
  
Ginny smiled brightly. “Yeah. He comes to the Burrow sometimes. He’s nice. Well, he and Ron argue some, but he’s nice to the rest of us. Mom’s kind of taken him on as a project since, you know...” she grimaced sadly. “She keeps sending over chocolate biscuits since he got home from Mungo’s,” she added, giggling uncomfortably.  
  
“He told me he loves your mum's biscuits," Hermione murmured, sniffling and wiping her eyes."Have you seen him recently?” she asked, holding her breath. Even if he still hated her, she was dying for news about him. He’d looked a _lot_ better when she ran into him in the corridor earlier, but she knew looks could be deceiving. “Do you know how he’s feeling?”  
  
“He came over to play Quidditch with Fred, George and I last week,” Ginny answered, nodding. “He seems to be doing quite well. We kicked the twins’ butts.” She grinned mischievously, her brown eyes sparkling with glee. “They’re great with a bludger, but they’re right awful with a quaffle, and just forget about either of them catching the snitch.”  
  
Hermione was happy to hear that Cedric was able to play Quidditch again, but latched on to other aspects of Ginny’s news. “So...Ron and Harry didn’t play with you?” She found it odd that the boys wouldn’t participate in a pickup game of their favorite sport.  
  
Ginny shook her head. “No. Mum said that Ron and Harry had to help her clean out the gardening shed, instead.”  
  
“Oh. Well...I think Cedric is still mad about Harry and I telling Dumbledore about him,” Hermione admitted. “I ran in to him just now, but he...he said he doesn’t have anything to say to me.”  
  
Ginny pursed her lips thoughtfully, then reluctantly said, “Yeah...when he saw the boys, he just kind of looked at them for a minute, then turned and walked away. I’m sure he’ll come around though. You meant well.”  
  
Hermione’s heart sank. So, Cedric was mad at all of three of them, even though Ron hadn’t been with her and Harry when they’d ratted on him. She sat quietly while Ginny proceeded to describe (in great detail) another Quidditch game in which Harry _had_ participated. Her obvious crush on him was rather sweet, and at least it sounded like Harry had gotten a chance to have fun for a change, rather than being stuck home all summer with his rotten aunt and uncle. As she listened, glad to let Ginny carry the conversation, she tried to suppress her sadness about Cedric, and her nagging worry that something was wrong with Harry and Ron. Luckily, the younger girl got quite chatty once she’d warmed up, and didn’t appear to notice (or graciously chose to ignore) Hermione’s lack of participation. By the time they reached Hogsmeade, Hermione had decided that she liked Ginny a good deal better than she did any of her brothers.  
  
***  
  
At a loss as to how to fix things with Hermione, Cedric began to spend more time with his roommates. His counselor had suggested he try not to spend so much time alone this year. At least the other fourth year Hufflepuff boys were a tiny bit more mature this year; possibly because they'd finally "discovered" girls, and were trying (rather pathetically) to impress them. Cedric couldn't be bothered. The only girl he really felt like talking to these days was Hermione, but he kept putting his foot in his mouth whenever she was around. She'd tried to talk to him a couple more times after the incident on the train, but every time he found himself in front of her, his tongue seemed to glue itself to the roof of his mouth. He felt like a fool, so he'd started avoiding her at all costs, practically running away whenever he spotted her coming. It didn’t take long before she stopped trying to talk to him. One afternoon, the last time she’d said, "Hi," to him, he’d peeked back around the corner, and saw her hugging Harry. So, he'd successfully driven her away, and the rumors he'd heard that she and Harry were dating were apparently true. It was a bittersweet "victory" to say the least.  
  
His roommates had started attending the parties that the older ‘Puffs held every Friday and Saturday night. Cedric thought it was a little ridiculous to include a bunch of fourteen year olds in parties where alcohol flowed freely, but because he had promised his counselor that he would try to socialize, he accompanied his friends to most of them-until they started trying to hook him up with random girls. After he noticed their annoying new passtime, he started claiming he was feeling ill (which worked remarkably well, since everyone knew he'd spent three months at St. Mungo's), and retreating to his bed, closing the curtains around him, and trying to concentrate on a book. He missed Hermione more and more each day, but he had no idea how to repair his friendship with her at this point. He was beginning to worry that he was spending too much time by himself again, which he knew could open the door for his depression, but he had a feeling that taking up drinking and pretending to flirt with girls he didn't care about might be more unhealthy.  
  
The situation with the so called "Heir of Slytherin" had him especially worried. Hermione was probably one of the better known muggleborns in the school. Because she was so close to Harry, she was becoming famous by default. He had no idea who the "Heir" might be, but if they hurt Hermione...  
  
He took to watching her every chance he got; feeling like a stalker, but too worried about her to care if his actions were a bit creepy. As far as he could tell, she and her friends were trying to figure out who was behind the attacks, but with little success. He figured out that they were brewing something in an old, mostly unused restroom on the third floor. He nearly laughed himself sick when he realized they actually thought his idiot cousin Draco, might be the Heir...as if the little git could pull off something like that. He decided to let them go through with their scheme because he figured it would keep them away from the real danger...whatever that may be.  
  
When Hermione ended up in the infirmary for a week, sporting pointed ears and whiskers, he felt horrible for not stopping their plan. Feeling like a failure, he backed off for a while. The weather had warmed up a bit, so he began spending a lot of time playing Quidditch with his housemates. He thought their team might actually have a chance at the cup that year...  
  
***  
  
Hermione was having a really bad year. First, Cedric seemed more determined than she’d expected to cut her out of his life completely. She'd made a few attempts to speak to him, but he just stared blankly at her, or walked away. She caught sight of him turning around to go the other way when he saw her coming on more than one occasion. One afternoon she came upon him unawares outside the Transfiguration classroom, and gathered up her nerve for one last attempt, simply saying, "Hi, Cedric." He completely ignored her (other than to step slightly to the side to avoid touching her), and practically fell all over himself in his hurry to get away. Hermione lowered her head, fighting back tears, as frequently happened after her interactions with him.  
  
"Give him time, 'Mione," Harry's voice startled her. She turned and found him standing just behind her; a sad, sympathetic look on his face. "I'm sure he'll come around. You...we...only did what we thought was best for him. He'll realize that eventually."  
  
"I hope so." Hermione shrugged uncertainly. "What if he doesn't?"  
  
"Then he's too dumb to be your friend," Harry joked, elbowing her playfully in the upper arm. "C'mon, Ron's saving us seats."  
  
Hermione smiled faintly, overwhelmed with affection for her best friend. Despite the fact that he was nearly a year younger than her, the way Harry always looked out for her made it feel like she finally had the big brother she'd always wanted when she was younger. Stretching up on her toes, she gave him a quick hug. "You're the best, Harry," she whispered before releasing him, and heading for their next class.  
  
As the situation with the “Heir of Slytherin” and the Chamber of Secrets became more and more urgent, she was forced to push the problem of how to make up with Cedric aside in order to focus on the larger issue; mainly, figuring out who the Heir was, and trying to avoid becoming the next victim. After the first few attacks, she was so wrapped up in their plan to sneak into the Slytherin common room that she barely spared a thought for her former friend.  
  
Barely. She thought she saw him watching her a few times, but after the night they finally drank the Polyjuice potion, she didn't notice him lurking again. Maybe it had just been her imagination all along. Once she was released from the infirmary, she threw herself into researching everything she could find about Slytherin himself (and his mysterious chamber specifically), as well as trying to figure out what his “monster” might have been. As the weather warmed up, the boys became distracted, wanting to spend more and more of their time outside playing Quidditch. Hermione stayed holed up in the library, determined to solve the mystery. If Hogwarts was closed, her father would _never_ allow her to return to the wizarding world. She couldn't let that happen.  
  
Then came the day she finally figured out why Harry was hearing voices from the walls. Once she made the connection, she was a bit disgusted with herself for not realizing it sooner. He was the only person hearing the whispers, and also the only parselmouth in the castle, for Merlin’s sake! It was beyond obvious, once she came across the answer in a dusty old book about supposedly mythical creatures that were, in fact, very real. Slytherin's monster was a basilisk, and it had far outlived its master. Unfortunately, before she could let anyone know what she had discovered, she was cornered by the monster itself. Luckily, she’d had the presence of mind to borrow a small hand mirror from another girl who happened to be in the library at the time. She used it to check around the corner of a bookshelf after she heard a strange rustling noise. All she saw was a flash of big yellow eyes in the mirror, and the next thing she knew, she was completely immobilized. The startled yelp she heard from the other girl, followed by the distinct thud of a body hitting the floor, had her extremely worried, but she couldn't move a muscle to check on her. She was forced lie there, completely helpless, for what felt like hours before Madam Pince finally discovered them. Only then did she find out, to her great relief, that the other girl was also only petrified.  
  
***  
  
Cedric was sitting in the Hufflepuff common room, bored out of his mind, and feeling more depressed than he had in a while. That afternoon's Quidditch game had been been abruptly called off, with no warning or explanation from the faculty. His friends were now trying to talk him into playing a game of strip-exploding snap, which was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard since, A) It was the middle of the afternoon B) There were no _girls_ in the common room at the moment (and as far as he knew, all of them were straight) and C) He was no expert, but "Exploding" and "Strip" didn't seem like two words that belonged together. Ever. It was ridiculous. To make matters worse, he'd had a letter from his father that morning, and now he was missing his mum more than usual.  
  
Suddenly, one of the younger girls burst into the common room, her eyes almost literally as wide as saucers. "It's the Heir of Slytherin! He's killed two girls!" she exclaimed breathlessly before bursting into tears. Almost instantly, it seemed like all of Hufflepuff house was crammed into the common room.  
  
"Who?" Someone demanded of the sobbing girl. "Who was killed?"  
  
"No one has been killed," One of the seventh year boys, a prefect named Alex Jones, announced, entering the crowded room just in time to hear the question. "A couple more students were petrified, that's all. No one is dead."  
  
"Who?" Someone else repeated the earlier question, but with a tone of idle curiosity compared to the urgency of before. Cedric supposed that petrification _was_ a lot less interesting than murder.  
  
"Penelope Clearwater," Jones shrugged. "And that Gryffindor girl with all the hair. The one who’s always hanging out with Potter." He shifted his gaze to Cedric, who had just had all the air forced out of his lungs with a loud grunt. "Are you alright Diggory?"  
  
Cedric shook his head once, and bolted for the door, almost knocking the older boy over in his rush to get to the infirmary.  
  
Strangely, Madam Pomfrey was nowhere in sight when he arrived. There were four occupied beds, each surrounded by privacy curtains, but the large room was eerily silent. He checked behind two of the curtains before he found Hermione. She was lying mostly on her back, but tipped partly to one side because of the awkward position she was frozen in. It looked like she had been kneeling with one hand held out in front of her when she was attacked. She held a hand mirror tightly in the hand that was extended in front of...well...above her, and her face was frozen in terror. His knees went weak at the sight of her like this; he fell into a chair and stared at her for a long time. Logically, he knew that Professors Sprout and Snape were working on a cure for the petrified students, but seeing his best friend like this was horrifying. The Heir was making death threats against muggleborns. He could have killed her while she was like this...she was completely vulnerable. Cedric could have lost her forever.

He realized in a stunning moment of clarity that she wasn't just his best friend. He loved her. Really _loved_ her. That was why he wasn't interested in any of the other girls his friends had been trying to force on him all year. The realization left him feeling a little dazed, and he wasn't sure how long he'd sat there staring at her before he started to feel uncomfortably stalker-ish again. He forced himself to get out of the chair and leave. Just before he walked through the curtain around her bed, he whispered, "I miss you." He immediately felt better for telling her the truth (part of it, anyway), even though he didn't think she could hear him in her present state. He vowed to himself right then and there that as soon as she was cured, he was going to do whatever it took to repair their friendship, and someday, he'd tell her how he really felt about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know he's being kind of stupid, but keep in mind, Cedric was only 15 during Chamber of Secrets (like Hermione, his birthday was in the fall and he was almost a year older than his classmates), so he doesn't know what the heck he's doing, especially when it comes to Hermione, and liking her as more than a friend. I just realized he's acting kind of like my 15 year old son. lol 
> 
> This is my second story where Draco has "decided" to be related to to Cedric (sometimes I don't get much say in what the characters do). I think it's partially because they were cousins in the first fanfic I ever read featuring Cedric and Hermione as a couple. And I just like the idea that two such different people could be from the same bloodline. Kind of like Sirius, compared to the other Blacks. What's really interesting (to me) is that for once, Draco's actually acting like *Draco* (well, he will when he actually shows up later), and not all remorseful and abused like he normally does in my stories. My muse is weird...and I mean the remorseful thing, not Draco being himself. 
> 
> Speaking of which, I don't know why my muse has such a strong hatred for Ron in this one. I'm usually kind of neutral towards him, but he did really annoy me in Goblet of Fire, and a lot of this story takes place during that year...
> 
> Edited 2/8/16 for grammar issues and typos. No major changes.


	4. Chapter 4

A few days after Hermione was petrified, Cedric spotted Harry and Ron outside in the courtyard after Quidditch practice, and decided that he could begin working to correct the situation before Hermione was cured by making up with the two younger boys. Gathering his courage, he said, "Hello, Harry. Ron." He nodded stiffly to the redhead, still annoyed that Ron had accused him of cheating the first time he’d joined the Weasley brothers for a Quidditch match in early July, about a week after he’d been released from St. Mungo’s. It wasn’t Cedric’s fault the snitch had flown straight at him. He actually suspected that Fred and George had charmed the damn thing to do so, out of some misguided desire to go easy on him.  
  
"Cedric," Harry said, smiling warily. Ron just looked at him confusedly, eyebrows raised.  
  
"Um, listen, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for how I acted after...you know..." Cedric trailed off lamely. "I, uh, it was just..."  
  
"You were a jerk. You made 'Mione cry," Ron muttered, scowling.  
  
"Ron!" Harry hissed warningly.  
  
"Well, he did!" Ron protested vehemently.  
  
"I didn't mean to!" Cedric exclaimed. "I was so embarrassed, I didn't know what to say to her. Everything comes out wrong whenever I try to talk to her!"  
  
Harry raised an eyebrow at this, and a knowing look crept into his eyes that Cedric thought was far too mature for his age. How old was he? Certainly no more than twelve. "So...why don’t you tell her now?" Harry asked quietly.  
  
"She's frozen!" Cedric reminded him impatiently.  
  
"Petrified," Ron corrected, and both Harry and Cedric frowned at him. "Well, there's a difference!"  
  
"She can hear people talking, you know," Harry told Cedric calmly. "Madam Pomfrey said so. She just can't move at all. Madam Pomfrey even has to cover her eyes at night so she can sleep..."  
  
Cedric blinked. How the heck did two second years know this when he didn't? Then again, they had obviously spoken to the school nurse, and he hadn't. "So...if I talk to her..."  
  
"She’ll hear every word," Harry smiled encouragingly. "She's not mad at you, you know. Just...hurt. She felt...we _both_ felt really bad after..." he trailed off and swallowed loudly. "We kind of felt like we betrayed you, but we were just worried..."  
  
"I know," Cedric assured him quickly. "I understand. And thank you. Really...thank you." He smiled sheepishly. "I should have said that ages ago."  
  
"Yeah, you should have," Ron muttered, kicking at a small stone on the ground in front of him and missing.  
  
"Ron!" Harry scolded, rolling his eyes at Cedric after the redhead looked away.  
  
Cedric chuckled, and shook his head. "Meh, he's right." He shrugged slightly. "Anyway, um, it was good talking to you again. I'm gonna go see Hermione."  
  
Harry grinned widely. "She'll like that, I know she will. It must be so boring up there with absolutely nothing to do."  
  
Cedric nodded and waved before jogging inside. First, he stopped off in his dorm room, and changed out of his sweaty practice clothes. After thinking for a moment, he grabbed one of his mother's old books, which he normally kept hidden in the bottom of his school trunk, then headed for the infirmary.  
  
***  
  
Hermione had overheard the professors and Madam Pomfrey talking about the mandrakes, and knew that she would eventually be cured. This offered a measure of comfort, but didn't relieve the intense boredom of being stuck there, unable to move or speak. She couldn't even blink. Her eyes became almost unbearably dry as she stared helplessly at the ceiling. Unless they spoke, or leaned into her field of vision, she was completely unable to tell who was walking around her bed at any given time, and there were people coming in and out of the infirmary almost constantly. It was a little unnerving, given that she knew someone in the castle had unleashed the basilisk in order to kill muggleborn students like herself. Harry and Ron both always announced their presence when they visited, and they talked to her as if she was awake, which she appreciated...since she _was_. She felt a surge of adrenaline when Harry finally discovered the crumpled page in her hand, which she'd ripped out of the library book right before she was attacked. At least they now knew what they were up against. She hoped that knowledge would be enough to save others from suffering petrification...or worse.  
  
Other people visited her, but many either didn't speak at all, or she didn't recognize their voices. The very first day, shortly after Ron and Harry had left, someone sat down in the chair beside her bed for quite a while without saying a word. She was dying of curiosity by the time an almost inaudible voice whispered, "I miss you," just as the person got up and walked away. She thought she caught a flash of brown out of the corner of her eye as the person stood up. If she wasn't already frozen, she probably would have been after that, from shock. She wasn't a hundred percent sure, but she thought it might have been Cedric. She spent hours reliving the incident (she had literally nothing else to do, after all), and by the time Madam Pomfrey covered her eyes for the night, she was convinced that her mystery visitor had been her favorite Hufflepuff.  
  
When he didn’t appear again for a few days, she began to doubt herself, but her original guess was proven correct when he finally came back. This time, Cedric sat on the edge of her bed, rather than in the chair beside it. He gently wrapped his hand around hers and continued to hold it throughout his visit. "It's me...Cedric. Ron and Harry said you can hear me. I didn't know that, or I'd have talked to you last time," he murmured softly after a few minutes. Her heart leapt. If he was here, and he had spoken to Harry, maybe things would be okay between them after all. "I just wanted to tell you, I understood why you did it. Telling Dumbledore about me, I mean." He chuckled softly. "I'm doing a lot better now, so...uh...thanks." He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, then said, "I hear the mandrakes will be ready soon. That potion better work, because I kind of miss you lecturing me about homework. Never thought I'd say that..." He chuckled again, then sighed quietly. "I'm sorry I kind of blew you off before, 'Mione," he whispered, his voice sounding a little bit strained. "I never meant to hurt you, I just didn't know what to say to you. I'm so sorry. I hope you can forgive me. If you had died without me thanking you..." He trailed off, and she suddenly realized he was crying. She wished she could at least squeeze his hand, or do something to comfort him. It struck her a little funny that  _she_  was the one who was petrified, but here she was, wishing she could make _him_  feel better. She couldn't even laugh at the irony.  
  
There was a rustling of paper, and Cedric cleared his throat. "Um, I know you're probably bored to tears, so I brought one of my mum's books to read to you. I hope you like it...you kind of remind me of her." He cleared his throat again, and began to read. If she could have smiled, she would have. He'd brought 'Sense and Sensibility,' which was one of her absolute favorites. He read to her for almost an hour, until his voice got scratchy, and when he left, he promised to come back the next day.  
  
He visited her every afternoon after that, and read to her for an hour or so, until his voice grew hoarse. Then, he would leave, always with a promise to come back again the next day. When he finished 'Sense and Sensibility,' he brought 'Wuthering Heights,' and she started to wonder how many of his mother's old romantic novels he had brought with him to school. He read fairly quickly, which was fine with Hermione. After he finished 'Wuthering Heights,' which took him about a week and a half, he told her he didn't have any more of his mum's books with him, but that he’d bring his own copy of 'The Hobbit' next time, which she'd always meant to read, but hadn't gotten around to yet. She couldn’t wait.  
  
Harry and Ron visited every day, but they didn't always come at the same time of day; by reading to her every afternoon, Cedric gave her a more consistent sense of time passing, so Hermione used his visits as her way to try to count the days she'd spent in the infirmary. She wasn't sure how far into the latest book they actually were. The last time Cedric had read to her, Bilbo and the dwarves had just reached a town on the edge of a lake, and met a man named Bard. Either way, at least a few weeks had passed since his first visit when there was a sudden commotion, followed by what sounded like more than one person being brought into the infirmary. She froze (figuratively, at least) when she recognized Ron's voice, and then Harry's. She soon pieced together that Harry had somehow killed the basilisk with the help of Dumbledore's pet phoenix, and that Ginny Weasley, of all people, had been the one to summon the basilisk and open the Chamber of Secrets. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but then she heard that Draco Malfoy's father had something to do with it. It seemed that Ginny was somehow possessed by Voldemort's old diary, which made everything a tiny bit more clear.  
  
Hermione wasn't sure if the boys were hurt, or even if they were still in the infirmary, but things had gotten quiet again, so they were either gone or asleep. Not long after that, Madam Pomfrey appeared at her bedside. "It's ready, dear," Madam Pomfrey murmured. Something warm, and slightly bitter, dripped on Hermione's lips, gradually trickling down her throat. Madam Pomfrey continued slowly dripping the liquid into her mouth for a few minutes, then mumbled, "That should do it..."  
  
At first, nothing happened, but after several minutes, Hermione sneezed. As soon as she realized she had done so, she gasped. Her chest was burning now, and she tried to say something, but her mouth was still mostly frozen. Madam Pomfrey had heard the sneeze, and came running over from one of the other beds nearby. Hermione managed to move her eyes a bit to her right, and recognized Colin Creevey. The younger Gryffindor was still frozen, except for one finger on the hand that had previously held his camera in front of his face, which was wiggling madly. Hermione was slightly jealous. Her fingers still wouldn't move. "Miss Granger, just try to relax...it takes a while for the potion to completely take effect. I expect you'll be moving around freely again within the hour," Madam Pomfrey said, patting her on the shoulder.  
  
"Thhhh," Hermione tried to thank the witch, but her mouth still wasn't quite cooperating. Then, she saw someone standing behind the older woman. "Sud!" She mumbled thickly, the name coming out almost more like a grunt.  
  
Madam Pomfrey turned and smiled at Cedric, who was staring anxiously at Hermione. "Ah, Mister Diggory. Care to keep Miss Granger company while she...softens? I still need to administer the antidote to Miss Clearwater and Mister Flinch-Fetchly."  
  
"Of course, Madam Pomfrey." Cedric nodded eagerly. "Is she alright?"  
  
"Yes, yes, it just takes a while for the antidote to work. She can't speak clearly yet, but that's completely normal. Just let me know if she seems to be in any pain."  
  
"Will do." Cedric bowed slightly, then quickly moved to Hermione's side. "How're you doing?" He asked, ruffling her hair as he leaned over to be sure she could see him.  
  
"Stttt," was all Hermione managed to say, but she was more successful at rolling her eyes.  
  
Cedric laughed softly, then quickly sobered. "Have you really been awake this whole time?"  
  
Hermione tried to explain to him that she'd slept at night, just like she normally would, but had spent several hours a day wide awake, trapped in her own body. She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated the hours he'd spent reading to her, and how happy she was that he'd forgiven her. All she could get out was, "So...so," followed by a frustrated growl.  
  
"It's okay. You'll be able to talk soon," Cedric reassured her, taking her hand. She squeezed as hard as she could (which wasn't very hard), and he smiled happily. "Hey, your hand twitched."  
  
Hermione tried to shrug, but wasn't sure if her shoulders moved at all. "So so," she said again.  
  
"You keep saying that," Cedric chuckled. "Are you sure your brain isn't still a rock?"  
  
Hermione wasn't at all sure, because she honestly didn't know the mechanics of the basilisk's spell, or how she'd experienced any sort of consciousness when every cell in her body was supposedly hardened. However, she did know that, rock or not, her brain was fine. What she really wanted to know was how her other friends were doing. "Hrr eee? Wah?"  
  
Cedric frowned confusedly, then brightened. "Oh! Harry and Ron are fine. As far as I know, they're getting ready for the leaving feast with the rest of the school. I was on my way there when Professor Sprout told me that the mandrake potion was ready, so I came straight here instead. I thought someone should be here with you when you woke up. Or, uh...melted, or whatever." He winked teasingly.  
  
Hermione was more than a little miffed that the other boys would go to the feast while she was stuck in the infirmary, but knowing Ron's appetite, she realized she couldn't really expect anything else from him. He'd probably dragged Harry along with him. Then, she noticed Cedric was looking a tiny bit guilty, and realized there was something he wasn't telling her. "Oh kay?" She asked suspiciously.  
  
"They're fine now. Ron wasn't hurt at all. Um, Harry did get a little banged up, but he's okay now," Cedric admitted reluctantly. "The basilisk bit him," he blurted out after she stared him down for a few minutes.  
  
"Bit?!" Hermione yelped. From what she'd read about basilisks, Harry should be dead right now. How did he not die just from looking at it? Even if he'd avoided its gaze...the things had nasty venom. "Po son. Die..." She sighed irritably at her mouth's continued refusal to work properly. Her lips had begun tingling like mad, though, and she hoped it was a good sign.  
  
Cedric seemed to understand her regardless. "Dumbledore's pet phoenix healed him. Magic tears," he explained, shrugging.  
  
"Oh," Hermione tried to smile. Then something occurred to her. "Leee Fee?! Ehk...ek...tes?" Getting fed up now, she closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to will her magic to make the potion work faster. She wasn't sure if it really worked, but the tingling in her lips went away almost immediately. and when she tried to speak again, her words finally came clearly. "Leaving feast? What about exams? I missed them?!" She tried to sit up, and managed to raise her head and shoulders off the mattress.  
  
"Easy, 'Mione!" Cedric exclaimed, pushing her back down. "I'm sure they're going to let you make up whatever you've missed. You have a fairly good excuse. Besides, knowing you, you could sit your exams right now and pass, am I right?"  
  
"That's not the point," Hermione whined. "I missed a whole month of school?! I didn't even realize I'd been stuck here so long..." It was completely disconcerting to realize how badly she'd lost track of time while under the basilisk's spell. "This sucks." She tried again to sit up, moving more slowly this time, so Cedric wouldn't stop her. This time, she was successful, and scooted back to lean against the pile of pillows at the head of her bed. She noticed that Colin was now sitting on the side of his bed, trying to scratch a spot in the middle of his back. She shot him a sympathetic smile, and he grinned back.  
  
"Ah, Miss Granger! Coming right along I see. Keep improving at this rate, and you just might make it to the Feast." Madam Pomfrey said cheerfully, walking over and handing Colin a back-scratcher before turning back to Hermione. "Can you wiggle your toes?" She asked curiously, pulling away the blanket that had covered Hermione's legs.  
  
Hermione remembered to her immediate embarrassment that she was still in the school uniform she was wearing when she'd been petrified. She’d been in such an awkward position that Madam Pomfrey hadn’t been able to change her clothes. She suddenly wondered why she didn't smell a whole lot worse, since she hadn’t had a bath since then, either. Perhaps the petrification was a bit more literal than she had thought. Even her shoes were still on, but when she wiggled her toes, the leather moved a bit, and she swung her legs over the side of the bed with no problem at all. Either her attempt to will herself better had worked, or once the potion finally started to take effect, it worked really quickly. She seemed to be fine now. "When can I get out of here?"  
  
"Just let me run a quick diagnostic spell, and as long as there are no unexpected side effects, I'll let you run along to the feast. You're going to be hungry soon if you're not already, and a big meal is the best thing for you. Fortunately, the spell actually kept you from suffering any of the nasty complications that people normally have from being bedridden. No muscle atrophy, or stomach shrinkage. Everything was frozen exactly as you were." Madam Pomfrey explained, smiling sympathetically. As she ran her wand over Hermione, the end glowed pink, then blue, then green, then yellow. Whatever this meant, it seemed to satisfy the nurse, because she nodded approvingly. "You're free to go, dear. Professor Dumbledore asked me to let you know that he wishes to speak to you in his office after the feast. Probably about completing your school work."  
  
"Thank you!" Hermione exclaimed, delighted to finally get out of the infirmary.  
  
Cedric stood up, and offered her his arm with a smile. "Shall we?"  
  
"Yes!" Hermione beamed at him, hooking her arm through his, and cautiously standing up. She felt a tiny bit light-headed, but it was barely noticeable. "Come on, I'm starving," she urged him, tugging on his arm.  
  
"Okay, Ron," Cedric teased as she dragged him into the hallway.  
  
"Don't ever call me that," Hermione grumbled. "I bet even after a month without eating, I can't eat as much as him."  
  
She ended up being right, but just barely. After a joyful reunion with Harry, and a slightly more awkward one with Ron, she proceeded to eat more than she'd ever eaten in one sitting. As predicted, however, she still couldn't keep up with Ron. Looking around the table at all of the smiling faces, she felt disappointed that she had missed out on a whole month here at Hogwarts. It wasn't just the missed classwork. She loved her parents, but they really didn't understand her at all, and much like Harry had said at the end of the previous year, she was beginning to feel like the castle was her real home. Glancing across at the Hufflepuff table, she saw Cedric eating quietly, surrounded by his boisterous housemates. It really didn't seem fair that they'd finally made up, only to have to separate for the entire summer the very next day.  
  
After the feast, Professor Dumbledore met with Hermione, Justin Finch-Fletchly, Penelope Clearwater, and Colin. He told them that they'd be allowed to take their exams in a month. Their professors had agreed to administer the tests at their homes, and to provide private tutoring sessions if needed. Justin would be given a bit longer to prepare, since he had missed a lot more time than the others. Hermione was just delighted that she was going to be able to make up the work she'd missed. Unfortunately, it meant she wasn't going to be able to spend much time doing anything but studying until almost August.  
  
When she informed Harry, Ron and Cedric on the train the next morning that the beginning of her summer was pretty much ruined (at least by their standards), Harry quietly told her that he wouldn't be able to see anyone anyway while he was stuck at the Dursleys. Ron frowned, and looked more thoughtful than usual. Cedric patted her on the back, and was the only one to promise to write to her at least once a week...more frequently if anything remotely interesting happened. She'd noticed that Harry and Ron didn't really seem to have renewed their previous friendship with the Hufflepuff. To be fair, Harry was acting subdued in general, which was to be expected, given that he was facing two months with his awful relatives. But when Ron started talking about trying to get his parents to let Harry visit over the summer, he didn't include Cedric in the conversation at all. Cedric soon left the compartment, mumbling an excuse about needing to say goodbye to some of his housemates.  
  
"Ronald! Could you be any more rude?" Hermione snapped after the compartment door had closed behind him.  
  
"What did I do?" Ron asked confusedly.  
  
"You could've invited Cedric to visit you, too," Harry pointed out quietly. "I think he's rather lonely, and he still seems kind of depressed."  
  
Ron frowned, then sighed deeply. "Yeah. I suppose. I'll tell the twins to invite him over for Quidditch more often, okay?"  
  
Hermione narrowed her eyes at his suggestion, irritated that he still wasn't actually offering to spend time with Cedric himself, but she knew that Cedric liked the twins more than Ron anyway, so she supposed it would do.  
  
"I'll write to him," Harry told Hermione solemnly. "And to you," he added sheepishly. "Hopefully Uncle Vernon won't be as strict as last summer," he mumbled quietly.  
  
"Strict?" Ron snorted. "There's an understatement! If I don't hear from you every week, I'm coming to break you out again!"  
  
"I'll call you," Hermione offered. "Your uncle can't object as much to someone contacting you the Muggle way, and if he refuses to put you on the phone, I'll get my parents to drive me to your house, or call the police. He can't treat you like that!"  
  
"I don't think he'd dare to lock me up again after last year," Harry chuckled bitterly. "Not now that he knows I have people looking out for me." He smiled almost shyly at them, then turned to look out the window.  
  
Hermione and Ron exchanged glances, and she knew the redhead was as dubious about Harry's statement as she was. She wouldn’t be surprised if his uncle tried to lock Harry in the cellar after Ron’s stunt the previous summer.  
  
When they all parted ways at King's Cross, she was filled with worry for both Harry and Cedric. On the ride home with her parents, her mother said, "Is everything alright dear? You're awfully quiet. The Headmaster of that school of yours said that you'd been ill recently, but I didn't realize you'd missed so much homework," She eyed Hermione's bulging satchel of assignments. "I've made you an appointment for a checkup with Doctor Wheeler on Monday. I don't trust those wizard healers."  
  
"Mum, I wasn't sick, I was under a spell. They managed to reverse it, and I'm absolutely fine now. I just need to catch up on what I missed while I was, uh, indisposed," She finished lamely, not really wanted to admit she'd been pretty much turned to stone for over a month. "I'm just worried about some of my friends. Harry's aunt and uncle are really mean to him, and I'm afraid of what they'll do to him this summer. And my friend Cedric seems really depressed still."  
  
"Is that the one whose mum died last year?" Her dad piped up suddenly. "The one they put in the looney bin?"  
  
"It isn't a looney bin, Dad," Hermione corrected, gritting her teeth. "He just wasn't eating right because he was depressed. They put him in St Mungo's...which a lot like a regular hospital...to help him get healthy again. But I don't know if they did anything to treat his depression. I'm not sure Wizards really know much about psychology."  
  
"It sounds like they're completely backwards," Her father tutted disapprovingly. "Maybe you shouldn't go to that school anymore, dear. It doesn't sound like it's anything we want you mixed up with."  
  
"Dad! I have to!" Hermione yelped, panicking at the thought of being stuck in the muggle world forever. Thinking fast, she said, "If you don't let me use my magic, it'll just build up, and go out of control again, like it did when I was little. I won't be able to contain it. You don't want that, do you?" It wasn't entirely true, but she couldn't let him take her out of Hogwarts, and she knew her father was more afraid of her magic than her mother was. She'd nearly destroyed their living room when her magic spontaneously released one day when she was ten, and she knew that incident had given her father nightmares for quite a while afterwards.  
  
"We can't just ignore it and hope it goes away, dear," Her mother murmured quietly. Hermione let out a soft sigh of relief. Her mum wasn't exactly happy that Hermione was a witch, but at least she was more understanding about the whole thing, and her dad usually went along with whatever his wife said.

After thinking for a long time (during which Hermoine was literally on the edge of her seat, straining against the seat belt as she sat rigid with terror), her father finally muttered, "Fine, but I don't like it."

Hermione let out a long, quiet sigh of relief and flopped back in her seat, her muscles aching, and her mother sent her a sympathetic smile from the passenger seat. The potential crisis was averted, at least for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might be updating sporadically for the next few months. My mom just bought me all seven books of the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon. I'm gonna be distracted for a while. ;-) I'll try to surface to update when I can (I still have a lot left to be posted), but I'm afraid I haven't written anything new since I got them. 
> 
> I've also realized how much the first book affected my damn Muse (it's been years since I first read it). No wonder she picks on Draco so much in some of my other stories...I suspect she's confused him with Jamie Fraser? I don't know how on earth anyone could make that mistake...
> 
> Edited 2/8/16 for grammar issues and typos. No major changes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things are a bit out of order here, because it didn't flow quite right with everything mashed into the first few months of the year. I just kind of spread things out a little, and made the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch match a little later in the school year. That match was supposed to be against Slytherin anyway, so let's just say they played Hufflepuff when they were originally supposed to (which was probably in April, when Gryffindor finally *did* play Slytherin), and go with that? Thanks. :)

The summer passed without incident, at least for Hermione. She received enough letters from Harry (via Muggle post) to reassure her that he was alive, and probably not being held prisoner in his bedroom, though she wouldn't put it past him to lie about this to keep her from worrying. Ron wrote to her once, asking how to use a ‘tellerfoam,’ which was a bit worrisome. As promised, Cedric wrote to her once a week, but his letters seemed flat and impersonal. She got the impression he rarely left his house, even to go outside. Toward the end of July, he did mention playing Quidditch with Fred and George, so at least Ron had kept his promise about that.

Hermione finished her make up exams at the beginning of August. Her father paced nervously in the kitchen the entire time Professor McGonagall was in their home. Shortly afterwards, she received a letter from Ron, who invited her to join the Weasleys at the end of the month when they went to Diagon Alley for their school supplies. Hermione couldn't imagine her parents being very disappointed about not having to travel to wizarding London again, especially after the incident with Lucius Malfoy the previous year. When she asked if she could go with the Weasleys, her father hesitated, but her mother rather eagerly agreed to let Hermione go without them. Hermione couldn't decide if she was relieved or disappointed that her parents continued to draw further and further away from the magical part of her life.

When the Weasleys met her in the Leaky Cauldron, she was relieved that her mum and dad had just dropped her off out front. Ron quickly took her aside, and informed her that a crazed killer had escaped from Azkaban and was possibly...okay, he was definitely after Harry. If her parents had heard about this, they never would have let her return to Hogwarts. She was relieved to find that Harry was already at the Leaky...apparently the Minister of Magic himself had arranged for him to have a room there, presumably so the Ministry could keep a better eye on him.

Harry greeted her much more enthusiastically than Ron had, giving her a big hug, and asking how her exams had gone. After they had all eaten dinner with Ron's parents, Mister Weasley took Harry aside for a little while. When they came back, Harry was even paler than usual (honestly, did those Dursleys ever let him outside?) and extremely upset. Mister Weasley had filled him in on the whole Sirius Black situation. Hermione herself had been shocked to learn that Sirius Black was the one responsible for Harry's parents' murder. Harry's insistence that he was going to find, and kill, the older wizard filled her with dread.

"Harry, you can't. He's a grown wizard. He's killed people...you'll get hurt, or worse!" She tried to reason with him, but he ended up getting angry with her, and stomped off to his room in a huff.

"You might as well try to convince the walls to stop holding up the roof, 'Mione. You know how stubborn Harry is," Ron said, breaking the awkward silence Harry had left in his wake.

Hermione sighed heavily. "One quiet year. That's all I wanted..." she mumbled tiredly before retreating to her own room. She wasn't in the mood to deal with Ron on her own, and Ginny had already gone up to bed. 

Harry continued to be sullen and withdrawn for the rest of their stay at King's Cross. Not even Molly Weasley could get him interested in shopping for his school supplies. In the end, she, Hermione and Ginny picked out everything for him, and had it all charged to his Gringotts account. Ron was  _ never _ interested in shopping for his school things, so his mother did the same for him (minus charging it to Harry's account, of course). Hermione was immensely relieved when they all finally boarded the Hogwarts Express with everything they needed.

***

Cedric boarded the Hogwarts Express almost as eagerly as some of the first years. Well, the ones from wizarding families, anyway. He felt a little sorry for some of the terrified muggleborns he spotted here and there, most of them looking like they were being led to their own executions. Cedric, however, couldn't wait to get back to school. His summer hadn't been bad...maybe a little boring...but his father had definitely gotten a little too clingy and overprotective since Cedric’s mum's death. He also refused to discuss Cedric's depression or his subsequent stay at St. Mungo's. Cedric wasn't sure if it hurt his father to talk about it, or if he was just ashamed of him for being so weak. All in all, being at home had left him feeling both smothered and shunned, all at the same time.

He was especially looking forward to seeing Hermione. They'd written to each other several times over the summer, but he was afraid his letters were probably a bit boring for her. It wasn't like there was a whole lot to do in Ottery St Catchpole. As he walked through the train's crowded corridor, he kept a watchful eye out for her familiar curly hair. He finally saw her up ahead, just past a bunch of giggling second years. She was walking away from him with Harry, Ron, and Ron's little sister Ginny. "Hermione! Wait up!" he yelled over the clamor of the chattering girls between them.

Hermione spun around excitedly, her eyes lighting up when she spotted him. She said something to the others, and they kept walking while Hermione waited for Cedric to catch up. Something flickered in her eyes when he drew closer, but he didn't have a chance to identify it before she flung herself at him, hugging him tightly. He closed his eyes, and indulged in a quick sniff of her hair (which smelled like strawberries and vanilla), before she stepped back, and peered up at him. "You grew!" She blurted, then blushed prettily, looking mortified. It was adorable.

Cedric laughed. "So did you." He grinned teasingly, and reached out to tug one of her curls, which seemed to have become more manageable over the summer. Her hair was much softer and silkier than he remembered. "Just not as much as I did," he added, winking. She was a full head shorter than him now, which made him feel sort of...manly.

"Well, yeah..." She blushed again, gently pulling her hair out of his hand before stepping back so she could study him carefully from head to toe. "You're just...you look so..." She trailed off, and made a vague gesture toward his chest, looking flustered.

Cedric raised an eyebrow. Had she just checked him out? A tiny voice in the back of his head whispered at him to tell her how he felt about her right then and there, but he couldn't muster the courage to do so. "Um, you too," he mumbled, letting his eyes skim over her briefly. She was wearing muggle clothing, which made it very clear that the slight curves that had surprised him at the beginning of last year were now much more pronounced. He caught himself wondering if she was wearing a bra, and mentally slapped himself for thinking about her that way. Bringing his attention back to her face, he found her staring in a rather unfocused way at his stomach, as if she wasn’t sure where to look. Clearing his throat nervously, he scratched the back of his neck and mumbled, "It's so good to see you again. I missed you a lot." 

Hermione looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. "I missed you too," she murmured, smiling almost shyly.

The voice in Cedric's head shouted at him again that this was his moment. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Listen, 'Mione...I wanted to tell you-" Hermione nodded encouragingly when he hesitated for a moment, smiling up at him, and leaning toward him until her scent enveloped him. "I-"

"Hey, guys, we found a compartment in the next car!" Ginny called out, startling them both. "Hi, Cedric!"

"Hi, Ginny," Cedric called back, waving at the younger girl even though a small part of him wanted to strangle her.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know Ginny could actually speak to cute boys!" she blurted after Ginny had walked away.

"I think it's only Harry that leaves her speechless," Cedric chuckled. The youngest Weasley's crush was obvious to pretty much everyone who had ever seen her in Harry's presence...except for Harry himself, who seemed almost stubbornly oblivious. A thought suddenly occurred to Cedric that pushed everything else from his head. "Wait. Did you just say I’m cute?" he asked, grinning foolishly.

"Don't let it go to your head." Hermione smirked and rolled her eyes. "Besides,  _y_ _ ou _ said it when you assumed I meant you," she added, in the lamest attempted denial he'd ever heard.

"I did not," he argued, still grinning.

Hermione blushed, then smirked and put her hands on her hips. "Vanity, thy name is-" she began.

The universe obviously had a perverse sense of humor, because just then a shrill female voice excitedly squealed, "Draco!"

They both turned to find Pansy Parkinson embracing the scrawny blond, who looked like he would prefer to be anywhere else on earth. Exchanging glances, Hermione and Cedric both burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" Draco snapped defensively as he turned to see who was laughing. Upon spotting Cedric, he said, "Cousin," and nodded stiffly. He then shifted his gaze to Hermione (who Cedric noticed suddenly looking stunned and more than a little horrified), and his eyes narrowed. Turning back to Cedric, he said, "I thought you had outgrown your silly fascination with the mudblood."

"Call her that again, and you won't live to outgrow your stupid prejudices," Cedric's good mood vanished in a flash, and he took a menacing step toward the younger wizard, who stepped back with an undignified squeak.

"I can see why great-grandfather disowned your grandmother. She was obviously a bad seed," Draco shot back after too much time had passed for him to possibly claim this was a successful comeback. The tremor in his voice also definitely detracted from whatever points he was trying to win with Pansy, who was now eyeing Cedric like he was a chocolate cake or a large pile of galleons.

"Diggory is your cousin? He's a Malfoy?" She asked Draco, still gazing at Cedric with that creepy, longing expression.

Hermione let out an odd little choking sound, and Cedric winced, realizing he'd never told her he was technically related to the little arsehole. It wasn't something he really wanted people to know, and since their families never associated with each other if they could avoid it, he almost managed to forget sometimes.

"Not really. His grandmother was, but she liked to roll in the dirt, and so does his father. There's obviously a bad gene in there somewhere." Draco sneered, glancing at Hermione before turning back to Pansy. "Fortunately, my great-grandfather took legal steps to...prune the family tree."

"My grandmother married a very wealthy, very talented half-blood, and my mother was one of the most powerful witches I've ever met! Her research-" Cedric was all but yelling now.

"She wasn't powerful enough to survive that stupid muggle disease, though, was she? Must have been her filthy blood." Draco smirked slightly, and Cedric launched himself half the length of the train car, knocking Draco to the ground, and punching him squarely in the nose.

"You shut up about my mum!" He yelled as he hit the smaller boy again and again.

"Cedric, stop! Stop!" Hermione shouted, trying to pull him off. "He's not worth it! You're going to get in trouble! He's not worth it!"

Cedric finally stopped pummeling Draco, who was cowering with his arms wrapped around his head. Mustering his dignity, Cedric stood, making a show of brushing off his clothing. "Oh, it was worth it," he muttered angrily, glaring threateningly at Draco one last time before he spun on his heel and strode down the corridor toward the next car.

***

Stunned, Hermione watched Cedric walk away, then stared at Malfoy in horror for a moment. His lower lip was split and bleeding, and she suspected both of his eyes would be black later. Worse of all, his nose was gushing blood, and quite obviously broken. Sighing in resignation, she took out her wand and aimed it at his face.

"Leave him alone!" Pansy shrieked, finally coming to her boyfriend's defense. She'd watched in mute fascination while Cedric was hitting him, and Hermione was pretty sure she'd checked out his arse when he walked away. She  _ almost  _ felt sorry for Malfoy that his girlfriend was so shallow. Almost.

"I'm just going to fix his nose," Hermione explained, her voice tight in her effort to keep her own anger under control. "Unless you can do it?" She didn’t really think so, but this  _ was _ the wizarding world, so perhaps pigs  _ could _ fly.

Pansy hesitated, then reluctantly stepped out of the way, clenching her fists. "Fine, but if you do anything else... 

"What are you going to do? Shriek me to death?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow in an unspoken challenge.

Pansy huffed irritably, and crossed her arms over her chest, but said nothing.

Hermione smirked slightly as she raised her wand to Malfoy's face. He was still just lying there, blinking dazedly, and she was starting to wonder if he might have a concussion. " _ Episkey _ !" She exclaimed, carefully making the correct wand motions to heal any minor injuries in his head. His nose snapped back into place (making him scream rather satisfyingly), and the split in his lip closed. She hoped the spell would take care of any other damage that she couldn't see. Shrugging in what she hoped was a completely careless manner, she said, "That ought to do it," then turned and walked away. "You know, as much as you both like to spout off about pure blood ‘supremacy,’ I would think you'd at least know a few simple healing spells. I learned them first year," she called back over her shoulder as she opened the door to the next car. She heard muffled cursing as she closed the door behind her, and burst into giggles.

She didn't stay amused for very long. First, she couldn't find Cedric, even though she knew he had to be on the train somewhere. When she finally gave up searching for him, and joined Harry and the others, dementors swarmed the train. As if they weren't bad enough on their own, seeing Harry pass out like he did was extremely upsetting, and the whole encounter left her feeling a bit sick to her stomach. Then, Cedric ended up receiving detention with Snape for two weeks because Malfoy reported him. Snape wanted to give Hermione detention, too, for supposedly trying to ‘cover up’ the attack. Luckily, McGonagall pointed out that all Hermione did was heal Malfoy after the incident, and that she hadn't lied when asked if Cedric had hit him. Hermione decided it was wisest not to point out that she already knew Cedric had confessed by the time Snape questioned her about what happened (or her answer might have been different otherwise). As it was, she got a figurative slap on the wrist for not reporting the incident herself the moment she got off the train.

She never would have thought that her first and second years at Hogwarts would turn out  _ not _ to be the most stressful. Already off to a rocky start, the year just got worse and worse. It quickly became obvious that Sirius Black was trying to break into the castle. Harry was in an almost constant bad mood because of the whole situation. And even after his detentions were over, Cedric was almost always busy with homework, since he would be taking his OWLS that year. Even though she frequently saw him in the library, he was more focused than usual, and less inclined to chat.

One highlight was that they finally seemed to have a decent Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. It quickly became her favorite class, a sentiment shared by many of her schoolmates, but after only a few months, Hermione began to have a growing suspicion that kind, gentle Remus Lupin had a horrible secret. She prayed that she was wrong, but it didn’t take long for her to notice that he was always ‘ill’ around the full moon. Given Snape's odd behavior the first time he covered for Professor Lupin in DADA, Hermione was reluctantly convinced that her favorite professor was a werewolf. She didn't know what to do with the information, though, so she just kept it to herself.

On top of everything else, Malfoy had been even more of a foul git than usual that year...probably because Cedric had completely humiliated him in front of his girlfriend. Hermione had a feeling the indignity of being beaten in front of a ‘mudblood’ had infuriated the Slytherin more than the actual beating itself. She never would have imagined the depths he would stoop to, and she couldn't believe that anyone was buying his ridiculous ‘injured’ act. Buckbeak had barely even touched him, and she, Harry and Ron had all seen him use his supposedly ‘broken’ arm on different occasions (always when no adults were around). It was maddening, but they couldn't prove anything.

She found herself actually looking forward to going home for the holidays, but her father had somehow caught wind of the fact that Hogwart was under heavy guard that year, and wanted to know why. For the first time in her life, Hermione lied to him, telling him that it was a new Ministry policy, and that she didn’t know why they’d decided to increase security. As much as she’d looked forward to getting away from Hogwarts for a while, she was hugely relieved when she was allowed to return after the winter break. 

The ‘curse’ of the previous term carried on into January, of course. Soon after returning from break, Ron’s stupid, scrawny old rat disappeared. Hermione was pretty sure he had just wandered off somewhere to die, but Ron, being Ron, accused Crookshanks of ‘murdering’ him, and refused to listen to any suggestion to the contrary, and he brought it up every time he saw her. She was sick of his attitude, especially when she was already under a lot of stress from taking twice as many classes as were normally allowed. Even with her slightly illegal little secret, the time-turner McGonagall had given to her at the beginning of first term, there didn't seem to be enough hours in the day. She had never tried to use the device to get a few extra hours of sleep (that seemed frivolous), so she was completely exhausted. Hermione was almost at the end of her rope.

Despite how rough the year had been, the days did pass by somewhat quickly, and the Quidditch game between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff finally arrived, in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm. It was bad enough not knowing which team she wanted to cheer for, but watching her two best friends in the world flying around in such nasty weather was terrifying. Even though it was early April,  the temperature hovered right around freezing. It was raining so hard she couldn't even tell which Seeker was which at one point, because they were both soaking wet, and the heavy clouds made it too dark for her to make out the color of their uniforms. It reminded her of how she'd ended up in Gryffindor in the first place, which brought a small smile to her face, despite her nervousness. 

Then, the clouds seemed to become even darker, closing in around the two tiny figures flying high above the other players. By the way Harry and Cedric were flying, it looked like they were racing each other for the snitch, though she didn't know how they could possibly see it. The temperature abruptly dropped below freezing, and a brief flash of lightning revealed that the dementors had moved in from the perimeter of the castle's grounds, and were now circling above the Quidditch pitch. “No!” Hermione screamed, jumping to her feet in horror as another flash of lightning showed that one of her best friends (she wasn’t sure which) was falling. The entire crowd seemed to hold its breath as the unidentifiable Seeker plummeted toward the ground. Hermione saw a splotch of crimson in the next flash of lightning, which came just as the dark figure fell past the top of the viewing stand where she and Ron were sitting. It was Harry!

Hermione was fumbling for her wand, trying to think of a spell that could save him, when she heard a deep voice bellow, " _ Arresto Momentum _ !" She looked over, and saw Dumbledore, on his feet, with his wand directed at Harry. He was the only one not frozen in horror, and she had never felt as fond of him as she did right then. Harry's descent slowed considerably, and he hit the grass far more gently than he would have otherwise. Her relief over Dumbledore’s timely intervention began to diminish rapidly when Harry just laid there, completely motionless.

***

Cedric swore that his heart had stopped when he looked behind him after capturing the snitch, and saw Harry's broom hovering riderless in mid-air for a long moment before veering off aimlessly in the wind. Cedric foolishly looked left and right, then down, and saw Harry plunging toward the grass below. Though he knew it was futile, Cedric steered his own broom into a sharp dive, hoping he might somehow accelerate fast enough to catch his friend. Of course it was hopeless. No one was more relieved than he was when Dumbledore managed to slow Harry's fall. 

Cedric managed to pull his broom out of the dive just in time to keep from crashing, and hopped off, landing hard beside Harry's still form. The other players from both teams touched down all around them, whispering anxiously amongst themselves. Madam Hooch reached them seconds later, followed by Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore (how did he get down from the top of the stands so fast?), Professor McGonagall, and some of the other faculty. Then, Hermione ran onto the field, followed closely by Ron, Ginny (who looked positively ashen), and a few other Gryffindors. Everyone watched breathlessly, while Madam Pomfrey carefully examined Harry. It seemed to take forever, but she finally stood, holding a hand over her eyes to block out the rain, and addressed Dumbledore. "He's going to be fine. He's just knocked himself out, and has a couple of broken bones. He's going to be fine."

Everyone seemed to let out their breath at once. Cedric felt his heart pounding in his chest, and put his hand over it in a pathetic attempt to try to steady his nerves. 

"Hey, Cedric caught the snitch!" someone yelled. He looked down at his hand, and was almost surprised when he saw the wings still fluttering between his fingers.

"No..." Cedric shook his head. "It doesn't count. There were dementors up there. Harry would have caught it if they didn't knock him off his broom. It doesn't count."

"He fainted like a girl again, you mean..." he heard Draco mutter from somewhere nearby.

"Shut up, Draco!" He snapped irritably. Turning to Madam Hooch, he said, "I really don't think it should count. He was in front of me...he would have caught it if not for the dementors. I think we should have a rematch." He heard a few of his teammates murmuring agreeably behind him.

Madam Hooch thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No, it's not your fault that he was distracted and you weren't. The dementors didn't actually touch him. Hufflepuff wins!" She shouted, grabbing his hand and holding it overhead.

Cedric's housemates started cheering loudly, drowning out his attempt to appeal to Dumbledore. The rest of his team just shrugged at him, so he finally gave up, and wandered off to the locker room to change out of his wet uniform so he could go to the infirmary and check on Harry.

When he walked back outside, he found Ron waiting outside the Hufflepuff locker room, looking understandably upset. "Cedric, you didn't happen to see which direction Harry's broom went, did you? He's going to want it..."

Cedric frowned thoughtfully, then winced, realizing what stood in the direction he’d last seen Harry’s broom traveling. "Uh...yeah, I did. Let me see if I can find it," he offered, hopping on his own broom. The Weasley twins joined him near the edge of the pitch, and he reluctantly led them in the direction the broom had been headed. Luckily, the rain had let up while was changing, though the sky was still darker than it should be for that time of day.

"Oh, bloody hell. Harry just can't catch a break, can he?" Fred grumbled when he saw where Cedric was taking them.

"Maybe it's okay," Cedric said hopefully as they cautiously circled the Whomping Willow, which was undeniably riled up about  _ something _ . He was trying to convince himself that the tree was just reacting to the dementors, or to the intense storm, when George gloomily announced that he had found Harry's Nimbus.

"Part of it, anyway..." He held up one end of the broken handle, only about two feet long.

"Uh, me too..." Fred muttered, holding up a foot long piece of polished black wood, splintered on both ends.

"Me three..." Cedric sighed, swooping just low enough to scoop up the bristled end, and retreating quickly before the tree could bash him in the head with a giant ball of gnarled twigs.

"Bloody hell!" Ron summed up the situation nicely when they returned to the locker room. Cedric decided he didn't really want to face Harry right then after all.

***

Harry was fine. Hermione had to keep reminding herself of that. He had needed to spend a night in the infirmary, but he was alive. As it was, she'd had nightmares about him falling every night since the game, though she hadn't admitted it to anyone. The ridiculous thing was, a week later poor Cedric was still taking a bit of flak from a few people for having requested a rematch. Most of his teammates didn’t care... after all, fair play was one of the defining traits of a Hufflepuff, but a few older Badgers (ones who had tried out, but failed to make the house team) had half-jokingly declared him a traitor. His friend Henry had finally told them off, yelling at them in front of everyone in the Great Hall one morning after their teasing had gone on a bit too long. This had raised Henry considerably in Hermione's opinion. Even after the teasing stopped, Cedric was more subdued than usual, and she had no idea what was wrong, or what she could do for him. She did her best to cheer him up, but to no avail. And sometimes she'd catch him looking at her with the strangest expression on his face when he thought she wasn't looking. All in all, she felt like she was about to explode.

Things came to a head while she was sitting in Divination class one afternoon a few weeks after the Quidditch fiasco, as she'd come to think of it. Divination was the first class that she had ever actually loathed. Not even Potions was as bad, because at least potion making was useful. Divination was completely pointless; even Professor Trelawney's ‘predictions’ were completely inaccurate, and frequently just plain silly. On this particular afternoon, the class was supposed to be practicing with crystal balls, but Hermione was so tired from her brutal class schedule that she started to doze off. 

She knew it was just her imagination, but for a moment, as her mind started to drift, she thought she saw something deep inside the clear globe in front of her; as the fog cleared, she realized it was Cedric. He was wearing a uniform of some sort, half yellow and half black, and he was lying flat on his back in a patch of very poorly kept grass, staring blankly at the sky. She wasn't sure why, but the image instantly filled her with dread, and she instinctively shoved the ball away from her, sending it crashing to the floor. She quit the class not long after that. Divination was nothing but sheer nonsense, after all...right?

All in all, she had decided that she was fed up with the school year, and couldn't wait for it to just be over. Then came word that Buckbeak was going to be executed, and it all went almost impossibly downhill from there. Cedric was busy, frantically studying for his Arithmancy OWL, and apologetically declined to join her, Harry and Ron when they decided that they probably ought to be there for Hagrid during the execution. Even Hermione thought it was a little insensitive to put school work over being there for a friend; she should have been studying for her  _ own _ finals, after all. But Cedric was never really as close to Hagrid as the three Gryffindors were. 

She was still just a little miffed that Cedric had turned them down when they came across Malfoy and his thug friends. They were snickering and making rude comments as they looked down on Hagrid's cottage from the top of the path. When Malfoy called her ‘mudblood’ again, she lost it, literally seeing red just before she punched him right in his smug, pointy face. In the back of her mind, she could almost hear Cedric teasing her about how hitting him was not worth it.

The rest of the night passed in a blur. Later on, she wouldn't even be able to recall what had happened when. All she knew was that Buckbeak was safe, Sirius was free, Ron's pet rat was really a very creepy looking middle-aged man, Lupin was  _ definitely _ a werewolf, and she never, ever wanted to see another time-turner again. It was far too confusing trying to keep track of everything. She'd tried to hand it over to Dumbledore as soon as they returned to the infirmary at the end of the night, but he'd refused to take it. Instead, he'd told her that one of the faculty would collect it from her eventually, and asked her to hang onto it for now. She'd reluctantly brought it back to her dorm room, hiding it away deep in her school trunk before falling into an exhausted sleep.

Sure enough, the next day, Cedric teased her unmercifully about how violence wasn't the answer, and that hitting Draco wasn’t worth getting in trouble. Hermione gleefully pointed out that she hadn't actually gotten in trouble. Apparently, the git didn't want to admit that he'd been bested by a girl. Or maybe it was because she was a mudblood. (Probably both). Either way, he never did mention the incident to any of the faculty.

Cedric passed all of his OWLS with ‘E’s and ‘O’s, Hermione received ‘O’s in all of her finals except Potions, and as for Harry and Ron...well, they both passed, so Hermione was mostly satisfied. After the year they'd had, she was almost looking forward to going home for the summer. The only thing she wasn't looking forward to was having to leave her friends again for two whole months. She knew Harry was definitely not looking forward to returning to the Dursleys, but Ron and Ginny had announced that their parents had a big surprise for all of them near the end of the summer, and that it was going to be ‘amazing,’ so at least there was something to look forward to. When she said good-bye to Cedric at King's Cross, he gave her an unusually long hug, and kissed her on the forehead (something he'd never done), before asking her to write to him as much as possible. When he turned to walk over to his father, she touched her forehead dazedly, trying to will away the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 2/11/16 to fix some typos and try to get the order of events to work. No luck really on that last part, so please just go with it. It IS supposed to be a little AU after all...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, I changed things up just a bit because Cedric was more involved than he was in the book/movie. Most of this story is going to take place during Goblet of Fire.

If she were going to be completely honest, Hermione was not very happy to be walking along through knee deep, dew-laden grass in the early hours of the morning; she was getting her shoes and socks soaking wet, just to go watch a stupid Quidditch match. Yes, it was a very important stupid Quidditch match, but England wasn’t even playing, she didn't know anything about either team, and if she had to listen to Ron ramble on about Viktor Krum (whoever that was), one more time, she might hex his tongue out of his mouth. Everyone else seemed very excited though, and at least this World Cup match had given her a chance to spend time with her friends outside of school, or school shopping. She and Ginny were having a very amusing conversation about whether Ron was, in fact, gay (both were leaning toward the probability, considering his blatant adoration for a certain male Quidditch player), when she suddenly heard Mister Weasley greet someone with a loud, "Amos! There you are!" She looked up just in time to see something drop out of a nearby tree, landing right in front of her in the tall grass. Startled, she gasped and jumped back. "And this must be young Cedric!" Mister Weasley exclaimed.

 

Hermione looked up, smiling despite herself when she met a pair of amused gray eyes. She was vaguely aware that Mister Weasley was trying to introduce Cedric and his father to his children. As if they didn't already know Cedric! Didn't he pay any attention to what went on at his home?

 

"Yeah, we know him, Dad. Been in school with him for five years now, yeah?" One of the twins drawled sarcastically.

 

"He was at the house last week, Dad!" Ron added incredulously.

 

Hermione ignored them all. "You scared me half to death, prat!" she scolded, smacking Cedric in the middle of his chest once everyone else had started walking. Ginny gave her a look that suggested that she wished she knew him well enough to get away with that, then excused herself to catch up with Ron and Harry. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming when I mentioned it in my last letter?!" Hermione demanded once they were alone.

 

"I wanted to surprise you," Cedric replied with a cheeky grin, quite obviously proud of himself.

 

"Mission accomplished," Hermione muttered, sticking out her tongue at him.

 

Cedric glanced at her mouth and seemed to zone out for a second, then he shook himself slightly, and asked, "So, are you excited?"

 

"Um, have we met? It's Quidditch..." Hermione wrinkled her nose, then looked around to make sure none of the Weasleys had overheard. "Don't get me wrong, it definitely beats sitting at home pretending I'm not a witch," she grumbled as she nearly tripped on a gopher hole hidden in the tall grass.

 

"Is your dad still going on about that?" Cedric asked, hooking his arm through her elbow as they walked along.

 

"He wants me to apply at Muggle universities. How am I supposed to do that if I don’t take my A-Levels? It’s ridiculous. And did I tell you he wanted me to attend a special summer camp for students who are gifted in science and math? I couldn’t get him to understand that potions and arithmancy aren’t exactly the same thing. I’d have stood out like a sore thumb. And every time I’ve tried to work on my summer assignments, he’s come up with something else that he just desperately needed me to do instead," Hermione vented frustratedly, even though she had already told him all of this in her letters to him over the summer. "If he gets his way, I won’t graduate from Hogwarts."

 

"He just needs to get used to the idea that you really are a witch," Cedric said soothingly. "My mum told me she had the same problem with her mother at first. It just took her a while to accept that magic was real, and mum was a witch. If you think about it, your dad’s only known magic is real for three years, and it's got to be a huge shock for him. You've been able to adjust faster because you get to spend the majority of your time surrounded by magic now.  Since you're not allowed to do magic at home yet, he rarely gets to see it...he only hears about it second hand. Well, except for when you accidentally blew things up as a kid..."

 

Hermione sighed. "You're right. I know you're right. It's just frustrating..."

 

"Say I'm right a few more times," Cedric chuckled. "I don't get to hear that from you very often."

 

"Ha ha," Hermione deadpanned, elbowing him playfully in the ribs.

 

He jokingly rubbed his other side and said, "Ow!"

 

"Git!" Hermione muttered, trying not to smile at his antics.

 

"Oh, you love me, and you know it," He murmured, gently elbowing her in return before taking her arm again as they reached a large ditch that cut across the path. Once he'd helped her safely across, he said, "See? Would a git help your over the treacherous abyss? No. Lucky for you,  _ I'm  _ a complete gentleman. And your best friend."

 

Hermione bit back another smile, and pretended to think for a moment. "I dunno, I think Harry and Ron are ranked slightly ahead of you..." she murmured, tapping her lip.

 

"Okay, you could maybe argue a case for Harry, but  _ Ron _ ? No," Cedric snorted scornfully. "You’ve known him three years, and I bet he still doesn't know when your birthday is..."

 

"Would  _ you _ know if it wasn't the same as yours?" Hermione asked skeptically.

 

Cedric pursed his lips thoughtfully, then shrugged sheepishly. "Maybe? I mean, I know Harry’s is...uh...soon?"

 

"He already had it. And Harry knows  _ exactly _ when mine is, even though it's nowhere near his. Therefore, Harry gets the ‘best friend’ title," Hermione said, only half kidding.

 

"What if I challenge him to a fight to the death for the honor?" Cedric joked, bumping her gently with his hip.

 

Hermione shivered as an icy breeze suddenly swept over them. She wished the sun would hurry up and rise already. "Th-that's hardly fair. You're almost three years older than him."

 

"I dunno, he's pretty feisty. I bet if we were the same age, he would kick my arse," Cedric shrugged, casually wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "I mean, he did defeat You-Know-Who when he was only an infant..."

 

"That wasn’t anything  _ he _ did. His mum's love and sacrifice protected him, it worked like a spell," Hermione reminded him softly. She knew he and Harry had talked quite a lot about their mothers, since it was a shared loss between them.

 

"I’m sorry. That wasn’t funny. Let's change the subject..." Cedric muttered, kicking at a clump of grass. 

They walked along in silence for a little while, and the sun finally peeked up over the horizon, nearly blinding the entire group before it rose high enough that they didn't have to look directly into it to see where they were going.

 

"Ah! Here we are!" Mister Weasley yelled suddenly. "The portkey!" Everyone began gathering around something on the ground.

 

As they drew closer, Hermione saw that it was an old, ratty leather boot. She shot Cedric a questioning look, but he just grinned amusedly, and gestured for her to step closer. They managed to squeeze in between Harry and Mister Diggory just as Mister Weasley began to count down. "Everyone grab on!" He yelled. Hermione managed to touch the boot just in time, and immediately felt a sickening hook-like sensation in the middle of her stomach. Everything started spinning wildly, and someone (it might have been her) was screaming. When the spinning finally stopped, they were still several feet in the air; most of the younger members of the group, except Cedric (damn him) landed in a very undignified heap.

 

Hermione watched in mixed awe and jealousy as Cedric gracefully floated down to the ground alongside his father and Mister Weasley. He landed gently in front of her, and bent to offer her his hand, "Are you okay? That looked rough."

 

"A little warning would have been nice," Hermione grumbled as she let him pull her to her feet. While she brushed bits of dirt and grass from her clothing, she watched him help Harry up. Ron ignored his offer of assistance, and she and Harry both rolled their eyes at him.

 

The landing fiasco was quickly forgotten when Mister Weasley led them over the crest of a low hill. The entire group gasped at the sight of the hidden, semi-underground pitch that had been set up for the World Cup. It was genuinely breath-taking; Hermione could feel the magic from the various wards and charms surrounding it humming through her body. "It's amazing!" She breathed, awe-struck.

 

"Told ya," Ginny whispered, winking.

 

Hermione was quite disappointed to find out that Cedric and his father weren't going to be sitting with their group. They'd only been assigned the same portkey because they lived so close to the Weasleys. Despite her disappointment over this bit of news, and her relative lack of interest in normal Quidditch matches, she was quickly swept up in the excitement of the international match. She’d expected to be rather bored, but all in all, it ended up being one of the most pleasant days she’d had in a long time. No offense to Harry and Cedric, but she soon realized that the professional Seekers were absolutely incredible. In no time, she was screaming her head off for Ireland, having finally chosen a side primarily to annoy Ron after finding out that his idol, Viktor Krum, was the Seeker for Bulgaria. She was surprised by how young the Bulgarian appeared compared to the rest of his team, especially considering how skilled he was. All of the players were quite impressive, even to her relatively uninformed eyes. She knew that she would probably have a more genuine interest in the sport after having seen it played by experts. 

***

 

Later that evening, Cedric and his father were drinking warm butterbeer in front of the woodstove in their tent, cheerfully rehashing the highlights of the game, when they heard a loud bang outside. "Fireworks," Cedric's dad shrugged it off.

Then, there was another, louder bang, this one even closer. "That doesn't sound like fireworks, Dad," Cedric muttered worriedly, putting down his mug.

"I think-" Cedric would never be sure what his father thought, because that was when the screaming started. Exchanging worried looks, they both jumped to their feet, and ran outside.

A half dozen tents were already in flames, and the fire was spreading rapidly. Everywhere Cedric looked, people were running around frantically, in various states of dress. "We've got to get back to the departure point!" Cedric's dad started tugging him toward the hill where they had arrived that morning.

"No, Dad, we have to try to help!" Cedric protested. "Look! The Weasleys!" He pointed at Arthur, George, Ron, and Ginny, who were running in their general direction, accompanied by a young red-haired man he assumed was one of the older Weasley brothers, whom he had never met. Where were the others? Most importantly, where was  _ Hermione _ ?

"Amos!" Mister Weasley stopped, and grabbed his father’s arm. "Thank Merlin you two are alright. Have you seen any of the other kids? Charlie? Fred? Harry? Hermione? We all got separated somehow!"

Cedric gasped. "Where is your tent? Maybe they went back."

"I doubt it," Ron argued, but pointed over his shoulder.

Cedric took off running, ignoring his father's shouts of protest. He found a slightly worn tent with a stylized ‘W’ over the door, but there was no answer when he shouted Charlie, Fred, Hermione and Harry's names. He took a deep breath, and attempted to cast a tracking spell that he'd read about once. A single set of footsteps began to glow slightly amongst all the others in the muddy grass. He followed them, and finally spotted Hermione, cowering beside a large tent. Not wanting her to scream if he startled her, he snuck up behind her, and covered her mouth with his hand, whispering. "Shhh! It's me, Ced!" before lowering his hand.

Hermione let out a soft cry, turned and flung herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck. Cedric wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her even closer as he moved deeper into the shadows. It was hard not to notice how nice it felt to hold her like this. "Oh thank Merlin! What's going on? Who are they?" Hermione whispered frantically, gesturing toward a large group of people who were stomping past, dressed in black robes, hoods, and white, skull-like masks. “Some sort of cult?”

Cedric had seen pictures of people in similar masks in old issues of the Daily Prophet. " I think they’re Death Eaters. Followers of You-Know-Who," he explained grimly.

“Death Eaters?!” Hermione hissed, looking horrified. “Why on earth would they be  _ here _ ? You-Know-Who is dead!”

“I don’t know,” Cedric whispered back. "But I have to get you out of here." Grabbing her hand, he began leading her through the mayhem, darting from tent to tent, and trying to avoid both Death Eaters and screaming bystanders alike as he led her out of the encampment to the hilltop clearing where they had arrived earlier. His father, and the Weasley’s group were already gathered there, with one noteworthy exception.

"Where's Harry?" Ron asked anxiously when Cedric and Hermione joined them. "I thought he was with you!" he glared almost accusingly at Hermione.

"We were separated!" Hermione shot back, frowning. "I thought he was with you!"

"Oh Merlin, the Death Eaters got him!" Ginny wailed, breaking down sobbing in her oldest brother’s arms while her father exchanged a very worried look with Cedric’s.

***

Hermione struggled not to panic, while Bill Weasley tried to comfort Ginny, and everyone else began talking excitedly. Her heart had begun pumping wildly at the younger girl's words, realizing that if the masked men behind the raid were really Death Eaters, they would quite literally kill to get their hands on Harry. And he was out there somewhere in the dark, completely alone. At least she hoped he was alone, given the possible company he could be in. "I'm going back for him!" she announced, gripping her wand nervously.

"Don't be crazy," Ron exclaimed. "You're only thirteen. You can't do anything!"

"I'm fourteen. Hell, I'm almost  _ fifteen _ , Ronald!" Hermione snapped irritably, sighing when he looked confused. "Ugh, I'll explain about the birthday cutoff for starting at Hogwarts again some other time...when Harry's not being hunted down and possibly killed..."

"So...never, then?" One of the twins joked, earning himself a dirty look from his father.

"We'll all go," Mister Weasley announced. "Except Ginny," he amended quickly.

"I'll stay with her," Cedric offered quietly after frowning thoughtfully for a moment.

A small, somewhat petty part of Hermione’s brain wanted to object to this, but she knew that someone needed to stay with the younger girl in case one of the Death Eaters wandered up this way. But they also needed the ‘real’ adults to help search, in case they had to fight to save Harry, wherever he was. With this in mind, the majority of the group began to make their way back down the hill to the encampment. Fortunately, the invasion seemed to be all but over by the time they drew close to the remaining tents. Mister Weasley was talking quietly to a Ministry official when a blast of mixed greenish light and black mist shot up into the sky, quickly forming a huge skull with a snake crawling out of its mouth. The ghastly image hung in midair over the campsite, and everyone gasped in horror. Even Hermione recognized it as  _ ‘Morsmordre _ ,’ the spell Voldemort's followers had used during the first Wizarding War to celebrate whenever they'd successfully performed a dark deed...a murder, for example. Her breath caught in her throat. Were they merely celebrating their successful raid? Or had they found-

"Harry!" Ron blurted suddenly. For one sickening moment, Hermione thought he meant that the Death Eaters had killed their friend, but then she spotted a hunched figure hiding in the shadows beside a nearby tent.

"Oh thank Merlin! Harry!" Mister Weasley rushed over to him, and they all followed, safety apparently forgotten for the moment. There was a brief argument...the Ministry official thought that Harry had conjured the skull, because someone’s house elf had just been found with Harry’s wand. The idiotic idea was soon dismissed, and they were all allowed to return to the hill where they'd left Ginny and Cedric.

The younger girl perked up immediately upon seeing Harry alive and unharmed. Hermione exchanged an eye roll with Ron before Cedric walked over to her. "So, my dad and I are just going to apparate home," he told her, sighing regretfully. "I guess I'll see you at school."

"Okay," Hermione nodded understandingly, though she was sad to see him leave so soon. She’d hoped maybe they would all travel back to Ottery St. Catchpole together in the morning. "Write to me. Maybe we can do our shopping on the same day?"

"Mine's already done. I didn't have anything else to do," He admitted sheepishly. "But maybe we could have lunch together in Diagon Alley when you go?" he asked hopefully.

"Okay," Hermione said again, hugging him impulsively. "Bye," she whispered, half-heartedly trying to release him.

He kept his arms around her for a few seconds longer, then whispered, "I’ll miss you," and let her go. She watched him walk over to his father, who grasped his elbow, nodded politely to Mister Weasley, then spun on his heel. They both disappeared with a 'Pop!'

"I really don't like that guy," Ron muttered under his breath once they were gone.

"Mister Diggory?" Harry asked confusedly.

Ron just shook his head, and Hermione raised both eyebrows, planting her hands on her hips. "What could you possibly have against Cedric? He's been nothing but nice to you, and he saved me back there," she pointed down the hill toward the smoking ruins of the campsite, "And he watched over your baby sister-"

"Hey! I'm not a baby!" Ginny protested indignantly.

Hermione winced. "You know what I mean..." She smiled apologetically at the younger witch.

"He's just...he's...too old to be hanging around with us," Ron exclaimed petulantly.

"Ahem," One of the twins cleared his throat. Hermione really needed to learn to tell them apart one of these days. “He’s not much older than us.”

"You're related. It's not the same," Ron shrugged dismissively.

"Ronald Weasley," Ginny suddenly put her hands on her hips, looking scarily similar to her mother. "I think you're jealous!"

Ron snorted derisively. "What could I possibly have to be jealous of?" he scoffed. Ginny said nothing, but tilted her head ever so slightly toward Hermione. "I think you've inhaled too much smoke, Ginevra!" Ron snapped, sneering haughtily before stomping off in some random direction.

Mister Weasley chuckled amusedly, and rolled his eyes. "I'll go fetch him. I've arranged a portkey back home since we can't stay here tonight."

Hermione just stared blankly at the spot where Ron had been standing when Ginny made her rather disturbing proclamation, praying that the younger girl wasn't right about the reason for her brother's sudden, odd hostility toward Cedric. The idea that he might have feelings for  _ her _ was just...gross.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 2/12/16 for typos and grammar. No major changes. Chapter 8 should be coming soon though!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not that this wasn't already pretty AU, what with Cedric and Hermione being friends and all, but this is where things are really going to start to veer off. I'll discuss the differences at the end.
> 
> I should probably point out that I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've written a HP story that didn't take place after the Battle of Hogwarts. I have no problem ignoring the epilogue (what epilogue?), but changing/ignoring so much of what happened in the books is proving much harder than I expected!
> 
> Oh...just a warning in advance: Cho is...weird in this story. I can't even explain why she's like this. I didn't mind her in the books, (though I didn't really care for her in the movies), but THIS...I dunno. Sometimes my muse is pretty warped, and she clearly hates Cho. It's not so obvious in this chapter, but man...Cho gets really bizarre later on, and it's NOT pretty, so if the idea of her being psychotic bothers you, this story is really not for you!

As if Cedric's summer hadn't been bad enough, when he asked his father if he could meet Hermione for lunch on Wednesday, the day before they left for Hogwarts, his father reminded him that one of his cousins on his mother’s side was getting married that day, and Cedric had already said that he would attend. Cedric would rather skip the wedding; he barely knew his muggle relatives, but he knew that it had always bothered his mother that he didn’t spend more time with her family. Because it was important to him to try not to do things that would disappoint her if she was still alive, he went to the wedding. It ended up being surprisingly enjoyable, though he could have kicked himself when his cousin, Melanie, asked him why he hadn't brought a guest. If he'd known  _ that _ was an option, he would have invited Hermione, but it was far too late by that point.

As he watched the bride and groom dance at the reception, he felt a touch of envy. Not that they were married of course. He just couldn't help wishing for a chance to dance with Hermione. His mother had insisted on teaching him how to dance properly, and he knew that Hermione had taken ballet classes when she was younger. She had expressed a desire to learn ballroom dancing as well, and he was sure they would have had a lot of fun at the reception. He had to console himself with the fact that he'd see her the next day. As the reception drew to an end, Melanie's younger sister Elizabeth announced that if anyone wanted to help themselves to any of the small potted plants that decorated the tables, they were more than welcome. Cedric ignored her announcement until he noticed (after all of the flowers, ferns and more traditional houseplants had been claimed) that one of the remaining pots contained a small catnip plant. Grinning a bit bemusedly over this odd decorating choice, he grabbed the plant for Crookshanks, who Hermione had once complained was only truly affectionate with her when he was high on the stuff.

He spent the rest of the afternoon and evening packing and repacking his trunk, just to pass the time. It seemed to him like the clock had begun to run backwards by the time morning finally rolled around. When his father got out of bed at 7am, Cedric had already been up and dressed for almost two hours, and had breakfast ready. He might have gone a bit overboard, but he was too anxious to sit still. "Eager, son?" Amos teased as he blinked at the loaded platters of eggs, bacon, sausage and toast his son was moving to the table. Cedric would have cast a warming spell, but he wasn't allowed to for another few weeks, so he had stuck everything in the oven while he waited for his father to wake up. "She must be some girl..."

"Who?" Cedric asked innocently.

"The girl you're so eager to see," his father said, smiling knowingly. "Is it the Granger girl?"

Cedric bit his lip, then nodded. "Yeah," he admitted, blushing slightly.

"Er, son, you're going to be seventeen soon. Isn't she a bit young for you? How old is she? Fourteen?"

"She's almost fifteen, Dad. I told you, her birthday is the same as mine," Cedric explained irritably.

Amos frowned thoughtfully. "Well...be careful son. You know there's laws concerning the consenting age for sexual-"

"Dad! We’re not going to do anything like that! She doesn't even know that I like her that way!" Cedric exclaimed, feeling his cheeks grow hot. He never even gotten up the nerve to tell her he was attracted to her during the last year, and he doubted he'd find the courage to do so any time soon.

Amos ignored him, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he gazed at the ceiling. "You’d be alright by our lawas, but her parents are muggles, so they’ll want to go by muggle laws, of course, even if she’s not one. I’m fairly sure fifteen isn't consenting age for muggles...but I believe that according to their laws, a seventeen year old isn't an adult, either. You should be okay. And I think in Scotland, including the muggle villages around Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, fifteen is considered-"

"Oh gods, Dad, shut up!" Cedric groaned, covering his ears with his hands. "Please, please, please just shut up. It's not even an issue, I swear!" He tried to will the ground to open up and swallow him whole, but evidently his wandless magic wasn't that good, because nothing happened.

They ate breakfast in silence, Cedric being too embarrassed to speak, and Amos occasionally looking up and chuckling to himself before going back to his meal. Afterwards, Cedric washed the dishes, promising himself it was the last time he'd ever do it without magic. By the time ten o'clock rolled around, and his father finally announced that it was time to leave for King's Cross, he was practically crawling up the walls. Amos took him by Side-Along Apparation (probably another last time) with them each grasping the other’s arm and one handle of Cedric’s trunk. As soon as they arrived in the alley behind the station, Cedric pulled away, swung his trunk onto his shoulder and started racing through the crowded building, not waiting for his father.

"Cedric, slow down!" He heard Amos calling behind him, and reluctantly slowed his pace just enough to be considered compliant. His father finally caught up just as they reached the wall between Platforms 9 and 10. “Good god, son, you don’t want to seem  _ too  _ eager,” Amos murmured jovially as they passed through the barrier together.

Rolling his eyes at his father, who just snickered at him, Cedric tried to appear calm and casual as he looked around the platform, but he didn't see Hermione's wild curls or a single redhead. Either the Weasleys hadn't arrived yet, or they were already aboard the train.

"You might as well get onboard, son," Amos chuckled, patting him on the back. "There's only a few minutes left until departure; she's probably already on board."

"Alright, Dad," Cedric nodded, and gave him a quick hug. "I'll see you at Christmas, yeah?" He murmured, feeling a tightness in his chest at the mere thought. Neither one of them were a big fan of Christmas since his Mum had died.

"Maybe even sooner than that," His father replied cryptically.

"What do you mean?" Cedric asked curiously.

"You'll see," Amos grinned mischievously, shooing him toward the train. “Better get going, son.”

Still confused, Cedric climbed onto the nearest car, waved at his father one last time, and went inside to start looking for Hermione.

As he was walking through one car, a compartment door suddenly opened, and Cho Chang, a fifth year Ravenclaw, popped her head out. "Cedric! Just the person I was looking for," She smiled up at him, and licked her lips. Her expression was a little predatory, and Cedric instinctively took a small step away from her. "Care to join me?" She asked, touching one finger to her lips, and lifting her right foot behind her left leg, running it up and down her calf.

Cedric blinked at her slightly odd behaviour. "Um, I'm sorry, Cho, I'm looking for someone," he mumbled, and continued on his way as quickly as possible. He reached the far end of the train without finding Hermione, and turned to head back toward the front of the train. He had skipped a few cars when he first started looking for her...she must be in one of those...

***

Hermione was becoming increasingly frustrated. For the last few days, it seemed like nothing had gone how she had planned. First, Cedric wasn't able to meet her for lunch when she went to Diagon Alley for her school things yesterday. One of his muggle cousins was getting married. Honestly, who got married on a  _ Wednesday  _ ?! It didn't really matter, because at the last minute her parents had decided to accompany her to Diagon Alley and King's Cross rather than letting her go with the Weasleys. The trip was awkward enough, what with her father's nervousness over being surrounded by so much blatant use of magic. It would have been a nightmare if she'd also had to introduce him to Cedric. She'd realized after the World Cup that her father was starting to worry about ‘all those boys’ she hung out with at school, and she was relieved she hadn’t had to exacerbate his paranoia.

She was briefly thrilled (okay...more like simultaneously annoyed and relieved) when she and her parents ran into Lavender and the Patil twins while looking for new school robes. Hopefully her father would stop teasing her about chastity belts now that he realized she  _ did  _ have female friends. She even considered trying to spend more time with the other girls this coming year, but after spending twenty minutes in Madam Malkin’s watching the other witches agonize over every little detail of their school robes and accessories, she abandoned that idea. Even Padma seemed to have become less studious and more boy crazy as she got older.

This morning, she had said goodbye to her very anxious parents on the platform at King's Cross. Molly Weasley had assured them that they should have no difficulty getting back through the barrier without their daughter, but promised that if they did happen to run into a problem, she would personally see to it that they got back home unharmed. Hermione wondered if any other muggleborns still had so much trouble dealing with their parents after three whole years at Hogwarts.

Now she was having trouble finding Cedric, Harry, Ginny and Ron. The younger members of the Weasley clan must have dispersed as soon as they hit the platform, because there was no large gathering of redheads standing out like a sore thumb like she’d expected. She was walking from one end of the train to the other, looking hopefully in every open compartment when she heard a soft smacking sound coming from behind one door that had the shades drawn. The door was just barely ajar, allowing the unmistakeable sound of flesh on flesh to drift into the hallway. 

Hermione froze in disbelief. There were rumors that older students sometimes performed all manner of sexual acts on the train, but would they really do so with the door open? She was incredibly tempted to peek inside to see if someone was really that brave (or stupid), but just as she took a step closer, she heard a soft female moan. The unidentified girl then sighed out a name that left Hermione shaking.

_ Cedric?! _

Her vision blurred, and she took off running toward the far end of the train, hoping to find a place to hide before her emotions overwhelmed her. She came across an empty compartment in the first passenger car. It was right behind the very noisy engine, and therefore seldom used. She quickly locked herself inside, tugged frantically on the window shade on the door, and threw herself down on one of the seats, still shaking uncontrollably. She gritted her teeth, and blinked back her threatening tears until she felt like they were under control. “You have nothing to cry about!” she told herself firmly.

Even after successfully stopping herself from crying, her head was still racing with questions, and she didn't want to deal with how she felt about  _ any _ of them. Did Cedric have a girlfriend? Since when? Was he currently engaged in some sort of lewd act with said girlfriend? Had he lied to her about his cousin's supposed mid-week wedding just to get out of having lunch with Hermione? Had he spent the day with his mystery girlfriend instead? And, if he did have a girlfriend, why hadn't he told Hermione about her? And...oh bother,  _ when had she started crying _ ? She started pawing through her satchel, looking for a handkerchief, muttering under her breath about supposedly honest and loyal Hufflepuffs.

A sharp knock on the door of the compartment startled her, and she looked up to find that the blind covering the window in the door hadn't closed properly, leaving her current meltdown in full view of anyone who bothered to come this way. Even worse, of all the people on the train who could have come by just then, Cedric himself was gazing at her worriedly through the glass. She couldn't really justify ignoring him...they'd made eye contact already. She had to talk to him now, but she really didn't want to admit what she'd overheard, because then she'd have to explain why she was crying over it, and she still wasn't ready to analyze that too closely. 

Frozen in indecision, she stared back at him like a deer in headlights, desperately trying to come up with a believable reason why she was crying by herself in the most undesirable compartment on the train, but her supposedly brilliant brain failed her. Cedric gestured impatiently, and called her name through the glass. Sighing heavily, she wiped her eyes with her sleeve, and waved her wand at the door, reluctantly letting him in.

"Are you alright, 'Mione?" He asked worriedly, immediately dropping into the seat beside her and wrapping his arm around her. “What happened?” He drew back just enough to study her face more closely

Hermione pulled away, still confused, but most definitely not wanting him to touch her right then. She noted absently that his clothes seemed to be perfectly neat and tidy, which struck her as odd, but she wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting here crying like an idiot, so maybe he’d had time to straighten up? The countryside visible outside the train too generic to tell exactly how far out of London they were. "Um, nothing happened, I'm fine," she mumbled, turning her head toward the window to avoid his curious gaze.

"Yeah, right. Pull the other one," He muttered, grabbing her hands, and forcing her to face him. "Tell me what's wrong, ‘Mi," he pleaded quietly. "Something obviously happened to make you this upset. Was it Draco? Do I need to pummel him again?"

Hermione chuckled softly despite herself. "No, surprisingly, it wasn’t Draco," she shook her head. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Cedric stubbornly ignored her. "If it wasn’t Draco...did you have a fight with Harry?" He guessed, then shook his head dismissively, "No, I know...Ron put his foot in his mouth again?"

"It wasn’t either of them," Hermione mumbled, looking down at her hands. He was still holding them, and she tugged firmly until he reluctantly let her go.

"Then  _ who _ , 'Mione? Whoever it was, I'll make them regret upsetting you!" He almost growled the words, and Hermione shivered at his fierce tone.

"There's really nothing you can do about it," she replied honestly. She had a sudden vision of him trying to punch himself in the nose, and stifled a giggle. "Really, it's...I’m fine. I just...I overheard something I shouldn't have heard. It was none of my business, and I don't know why I let it affect me. I'm fine." She thought maybe he would realize what she'd overheard, and say something to explain himself, but he just looked legitimately confused. "So, how was your cousin's wedding?" She asked after a minute or so, hoping he’d allow her to change the subject.

"It was kind of boring, honestly. I should have asked you to come with me. I found out when I got there that I was allowed to bring a guest, and Dad had to work, so he couldn’t have gone." Cedric let out a soft sigh, then reached inside his robes, pulling out a small square box. "My cousin and her new husband own a greenhouse, so they used all these different plants as centerpieces. I grabbed one for you...well...for Crookshanks." He opened the box, revealing the tiniest potted catnip plant Hermione had ever seen. "It's shrunk, obviously. Just cast ‘ _ finite incantum  _ ’ on it when you get it to your dormitory," He put the lid back on the box, and held it out to her. "Why are you crying again?"

She had stopped, but his thoughtfulness had made the tears start flowing again. She was more confused than ever about what was going on with him and the anonymous moaning girl. Wiping her cheeks, she mumbled, "Oh, uh, it’s just so thoughtful of you. Crookshanks is going to be so happy. Thank you, Cedric." 

Just then, Harry and Ron stumbled upon them, and she was spared any further probing questions from Cedric. She couldn't believe that he had thought to bring something for her cat, whom he'd only seen a few times when the half-kneazle had escaped from the Gryffindor dormitory last year. It didn't seem like the behavior of a boy who was dating (and possibly shagging) another girl. It wasn't quite normal best friend behavior either, for that matter. Even Harry had never done anything quite that considerate. She wondered suddenly why it was  _ Harry _ who always seemed to come to mind in the role of her best friend, while almost everything Cedric (whom she’d been friends with just as long; a little longer, really) did just left her feeling more and more confused.

***

Cedric decided to let Hermione off the hook when Harry and Ron joined them, but he was extremely concerned about the state Hermione had been in when he'd finally found her trying to hide in one of the lesser used cars on the train. It wasn't like her to cry over just anything, so whatever had happened must have been pretty bad. He hated to leave her side when they reached the Great Hall, but since the Welcoming Feast was considered a semi-formal occasion, everyone had to sit at their own house table. He wished...not for the first time, and probably not for the last...that Hermione hadn’t been so damn color blind her first night at Hogwarts.

When Dumbledore announced the upcoming Triwizard Tournament, Cedric's first thought was that someone would have to be insane to volunteer for something like that. He glanced over at some of the seventh year Gryffindors, thinking it was probably right up _their_ alley. Then, Dumbledore welcomed the students from Beauxbaxtons, and he had to suppress an eyeroll when some of the students from the French school all but pranced into the Great Hall with their noses in the air. Despite their blatant air of superiority, and the rather scornful looks they directed at both the Great Hall and the Hogwarts students themselves, several of the boys from Hogwarts seemed to lose half their brain cells on the spot, all of them staring openly at one of the girls in the visiting group, a tall, slender blonde who seemed even more stuck up than her peers. He had to admit that the foreign girl was pretty, but he preferred a girl with brains. He glanced over at Hermione, and smiled to himself. Brains and beauty combined were even better.

When the Durmstrang students entered, Cedric smiled pleasantly at them, since they seemed to appreciate the beauty of the castle more than the Beauxbatons students had. His smile faded when he caught Viktor Krum blatantly flirting with Hermione, who blushed and started whispering to Ginny after the hulking Bulgarian had plodded past their table.  _ That _ wouldn't do at all...

***

Hermione almost forgot what she'd heard on the train in the commotion following Dumbledore's announcement at dinner that night. Most of the boys seated around her were going on and on about the foreign girls...particularly a tall blonde from Beauxbatons. Some of the girls were not unaffected by the visiting students, either. Harry didn't seem to have much to say about the surprising turn of events, but Ron was stunned that his hero, Viktor Krum, was going to be there for the whole year. Ginny had given Hermione an amused nod across the table, and mouthed, "Definitely gay!" after her older brother had almost literally bounced in his seat in excitement as the Bulgarian Seeker led the Durmstrang contingent into the Great Hall.

"Maybe, but is Krum?" Hermione mouthed back after the Seeker gave her a very intense look as he passed by, smiling rather awkwardly when their eyes met.

Ginny shrugged uncertainly, her eyes wide; she had obviously seen the brief exchange as well, so it wasn't just Hermione's imagination. Then, Hermione spotted Cedric over Ginny's shoulder. He was frowning...no, that wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the way he was glaring at Krum's back as the older boy approached the Slytherin table with the rest of his school mates. The Belgian Seeker appeared to be a lot older than his fellow students...she wondered briefly if he was really young enough to still be in school. She pondered this for a moment before forcing her thoughts back to her friend. Cedric looked like he was trying to burn a hole in the other boy's back through sheer will. What was up with  _ that _ ?

Hermione sighed and reached for a dinner roll as the platters in front of them suddenly filled with food. Whatever was going on in Cedric's head lately, he was driving  _ her  _ mad.

***

Cedric thought he might just go crazy. As soon as he got to his dorm room after the Welcoming Feast, his roommates (except for Henry), started harassing him about the Tournament. They'd all latched on to the idea that Cedric should enter his name for Hogwarts Champion. It figures that _this_ would be the one time they finally grasped the concept that he was a nearly a full year older than the rest of them. They insisted that he ‘owed’ it to all the sixth years who wouldn't be turning seventeen before the deadline. It was ridiculous! He wanted no part of it, and frankly, he didn't think he'd be ready to attempt such a thing even if he was turning _twenty_ _seven_ this year. Henry was the only voice of reason, pointing out that Cedric was still just a sixth year, and had taken the same lessons the rest of them had. He asked quite pointedly if any of _them_ felt prepared for such a dangerous competition. The comments died down a little after that, but not entirely. 

Over the next few days, a few sixth years from other houses made similar suggestions. Even Draco cornered him in an empty hallway, and made a vague comment about how winning such an important competition would certainly do a lot to improve one's standing in the family. Did he really think he was being subtle? Not that Cedric cared at all about how the Malfoy family felt about him. In fact, if entering the tournament would improve the family's opinion of him, it was just one more reason  _ not  _ to enter, as far as he was concerned.

By Friday morning Cedric's mind was completely made up.  He wasn't going to enter his name, and that was his final decision on the matter. Then, he reluctantly joined a group of his housemates who wanted to ‘scope out the competition’ while people submitted their names. When he walked into the Great Hall, the first thing he saw was Viktor Krum flirting with Hermione again.  _ Cedric’s  _ Hermione! Out of all the girls in the castle he could have chosen, the Bulgarian Seeker chose to stare intently at  _ her  _ as he dropped his name in the Goblet, smirking with all the arrogance of a prince. Hermione was staring back  at the older boy, seemingly transfixed. Cedric saw red (or perhaps green). The next thing he knew, he was rooting around in his satchel for a scrap of parchment and a quill.

***

Hermione was trying to study in the Great Hall. At least that was her excuse for gawking with the rest of the underage students while the various so-called ‘adult’ students put their names in the goblet of fire. Butterflies suddenly took over her stomach when Viktor Krum marched in, looked straight at her, and bowed his head politely, a very faint smile curling one corner of his mouth as he dropped his name in the goblet. Why in the world would someone as famous and popular as him keep singling her out for attention like this? She realized she had been staring back at him while trying to figure out his odd fixation with her, and immediately ducked her head, blushing in embarrassment over her lack of manners. 

She was trying to concentrate on the book in her lap, still wondering about the Bulgarian’s behavior when a flash of yellow and black caught her eye...someone else was approaching the goblet of fire. Her jaw dropped when she looked up and saw Cedric ( _ her Cedric  _ !) walking forward, his jaw set in determination. What was he doing?! He couldn’t enter the tournament! She'd read about it after Dumbledore’s announcement, and the Triwizard Tournament was terribly dangerous. Lots of people had died while participating. She didn't want to embarrass him by making a big scene in front of everyone, so she just watched in silent horror, half hoping that Dumbledore's age line would stop him. He wasn't quite seventeen yet, but he would be by the October 31st deadline. She wasn't sure if he had to be seventeen already in order to submit his name, so she held her breath when he stepped across the age line. Apparently, Cedric’s birthday was close enough, because the cup accepted his name, just as it had already accepted those of several other students. Hermione's chest tightened painfully, until she almost couldn't breath. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweating, and a painful knot formed in her stomach. She had to talk him out of it...convince him to withdraw his name before it was too late. Was that even possible?

Then, the Weasley twins approached. This time she spoke up, so shaken by seeing Cedric enter his name that she really didn’t care if she embarrassed the twins. She scornfully attempted to talk some sense into them, but failed miserably, of course. She chuckled with everyone else when their ‘brilliant’ plan backfired spectacularly. By the time she remembered to look around for Cedric again, he was gone. The coward probably knew she wouldn't approve of him entering his name, and had snuck out in an attempt to escape the lecture he knew he had coming. Sighing heavily, she shoved her book into her satchel, and headed off to look for him.

She soon found him underneath his favorite tree. "I wondered how long it would take you to hunt me down," he murmured, glancing at her sideways when she leaned against the trunk beside him.

"Why would you do something so  _ unbelievably  _ stupid, Cedric?" Hermione asked softly. "The tournament is  _ so  _ dangerous! You could get hurt! Or worse!" Her voice went up, and she flinched at how shrill she sounded.

"I'm not going to get picked." He shrugged, looking as if he was trying to appear unconcerned, but failing miserably. "I'm barely old enough to enter, and I'm only a sixth year. It'll probably pick some eighteen year old seventh year. I just put my name in because my dorm mates wanted me to. I'm one of the only sixth years old enough to enter, so they've all been bugging me to 'represent' them." He shrugged again, and mumbled, "I won't get picked." He sounded like he was desperately trying to convince  _ himself _ of that, just as much as her, and Hermione winced in sympathy despite the fact that she was still upset with him.

"What if you  _ do  _ get picked? I heard the goblet choses based on ability, not by a person’s age, or year in school. Cedric, you're...I'll deny ever saying this...but you're  _ brilliant _ , Ced!" Hermione turned slightly away from him, biting her lower lip to keep it from trembling. "You could get picked," she whispered fearfully.

"I won't get picked," he repeated, shaking his head firmly. Just then there was a loud cheer from the open door of the castle as another student dropped their name in the cup. "Come on, let’s go for a walk by the lake..." Cedric tilted his head in its general direction, and held out his hand.

Hermione briefly thought back to the girl she’d heard on the train, then pushed the memory out of her head, and slipped her hand into his, only to discover that it was shaking. "You won't get picked," she murmured, squeezing reassuringly as they set out down the hill.

They walked for a very long time before his hand finally stopped shaking...

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't decide at first if I wanted to use the book version or movie version of the the tournament timeline (especially the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrival scene). I finally decided to go with a more movie-like timeline and entrance scene, but to have both male and female students come from the visiting schools like in the books, (even though that doesn't really affect this story at all). I went with the more movie-like entrance mainly because I wanted to use those looks Viktor gave Hermione in the movie to give Cedric a reason to be jealous. Obviously, none of that dancing around, cooing, or aggressive stomping, staff banging and fire blowing from the movie is happening here, though. lol The timeline for when they were allowed to start putting their names in the cup was kind of vague between the books and movies, and it didn't really matter so in my mind, Cedric entered before his birthday, just so Hermione could hope the age line would stop him.
> 
> Also...about the wedding on a Wednesday...September 1st was on a Thursday that year (assuming I did my math right) and I needed something odd to make Hermione willing to question if Cedric was hiding something from her. I figure her parents wouldn't want to have to drive to London and Diagon Alley twice, so they'd combine it all in one trip, and go shopping for her school stuff the day before she left. I've actually been invited to a wedding on a Thursday, so I guess it's not too out of the realm of possibility, and if I change it, she and Cedric *could* have met at Diagon Alley and that would sort of ruin the whole 'wondering if he's lying thing.' This is not one of my most well thought out stories, obviously. Or maybe I'm overthinking it...
> 
> Edited 2/14/16 for grammar issues and typos.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I swapped when the dragon smashed through the spectator's box. I hadn't really changed a whole lot else in this part except for adding the medical tent scenes, and it seemed a little more dramatic to have the dragon wreak havoc upon its return to the arena.

Hermione didn't know which was worse...

First, there was Cedric. Hearing Dumbledore announce his name as the Hogwarts’ Triwizard Champion was much worse than hearing the mystery girl on the train moaning it breathlessly had been. Hermione wasn't sure how she kept from screaming, throwing up or both.

 _‘He wasn't supposed to be picked_!’ The thought kept running through her head on a seemingly endless loop while she watched everyone around her react. It felt like they were all at the other end of a long, dark tunnel, and there was no light or air at her end. Everyone at the Hufflepuff table was cheering ecstatically. Cedric was definitely back in everyone’s good graces now...he was their golden boy. All of Hufflepuff House was thrilled, except for two. Hermione suspected that Henry’s expression was nearly identical to her own...he looked like he was going to be sick. Cedric himself smiled and waved when his name was called, but she knew he was horrified. He’d tried to withdraw his name from the cup, but Dumbledore had explained that all entries were final.

Cedric glanced at her for a moment, his eyes widening for just a fraction of a second, but it was long enough for her to see the sheer terror he was desperately trying to hide from everyone else. She fought back tears as Dumbledore ushered him toward the door to the adjoining room where the other two champions, Viktor Krum, and the beautiful blonde French witch everyone had been drooling over, Fleur Delacour, had already disappeared. When the doors swung closed behind him, she had a sudden flashback to the image she had seen of him in the crystal ball the previous year, and had to sit down as her knees suddenly gave out.

Just when she thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, _Harry’s_ name came out of the cup. Harry, who hadn't even entered his name! She could see the fear written all over his face when his name was called...he wasn’t even trying to hide it. Something had gone horribly wrong. There was no way this should have happened. She could see the worry in Dumbledore's eyes, and anything that made _Dumbledore_ worry could not be a good thing. Harry had frozen, probably not sure what he was supposed to do now...there were only meant to be three champions. Hermione nudged him forward, pushing him toward Dumbledore, who would surely fix this somehow. She watched as one of her best friend’s in the world followed the other into the room where the champions were supposed to be meeting. She wondered how the other three competitors, especially Cedric, would react when they found out about Harry.

She didn't find out until hours later. The students had been sent back to their dormitories after the Halloween feast (which Hermione hadn't touched). All but the first and second years were still wide awake and waiting when Harry finally returned to their common room. A huge cheer went up when he walked in, but Hermione couldn't bring herself to join in. She was too scared. She noticed that Ron hadn't cheered either, but from the angry set of his jaw, she knew it wasn't because he was worried about Harry like she was. For whatever reason, Ron was furious. Merlin only knew what was going on in _his_ head.

Hoping to nip any arguments in the bud, Hermione pushed forward through the gathered Gryffindors. Everyone knew by now that she was one of Harry's 'inner circle,' so they all cleared a path for her without question. Grabbing Harry's arm, she pulled him to a quiet alcove, and quickly cast a ' _muffliato_ ' around them. "What happened? Did Dumbledore take care of it?" she asked anxiously.

Harry swallowed thickly, then shook his head. "There's nothing he can do," he croaked. "Once the goblet picks your name, you have to compete."

"They can't _force_ you to compete, Harry. What're they gonna do? Shoot you?" Hermione asked skeptically.

Harry raised one eyebrow, and gave her a long, meaningful look. "The Goblet...it makes sure you compete, somehow. Dumbledore said I didn’t want to know how."

"No!" Hermione growled. "They can't do this. There are rules. The cup was only supposed to pick _three_ contestants. And you're not old enough..."

"The age requirement was Dumbledore's, not the Goblet's," Harry shrugged helplessly. "That's why he had to set the age line, for all the good it did." He sounded utterly defeated, and Hermione burst into tears.

"I'll help you Harry. I bet...I bet Cedric will help you too. He's older, he knows even  more spells than I do." Hermione bit back a sob upon remembering that Cedric was also a Champion. She'd somehow forgotten, possibly unconsciously forced herself to forget, in all the hubbub over Harry’s selection.

 _This couldn't be happening_.

"Cedric didn't look too happy to see me in there..." Harry said dubiously. "I doubt he's going to want anything to do with me."

"He's probably just worried about you. He knows you didn't put your name in," Hermione shook her head slightly.

"Oh, you mean the same way Ron knows I didn’t do it?" Harry snorted. "Do you think I don't see how he's glaring at me over there? If he was any good at wandless magic, I'd probably be dead already."

"Don't talk like that!" Hermione ordered him angrily. "You're going to be fine. Cedric's going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine."

"I certainly hope so," Harry chuckled weakly. "It would be really embarrassing to survive Voldemort, and then be killed off in some stupid contest."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Harry," Hermione grunted. "I promise."

"Good, so are you going to sleep beside my bed, and keep Ron from murdering me in my sleep?" Harry asked, once again eyeing the redhead over her shoulder.

"Ginny would kill him if he did anything to you," Hermione blurted, then covered her mouth, hoping he hadn't noticed her slip. It definitely wasn't her place to reveal the younger girl's crush, even if Harry had to be a complete moron not to have picked up on it yet.

Fortunately, he was too consumed by his fears about the tournament to notice. "The first task isn't for a month, but I don't even know how to begin to prepare...I have no idea what the task will be."

Hermione hugged him impulsively, only partly to shut him up. "We'll figure it out, Harry, I promise. I've been researching the Tournament since Cedric put his name in the cup. I have a pretty good idea of the types of things they make people do. We'll figure it out," she promised, rubbing his back gently until he finally relaxed a smidge. When she cancelled her noise muffling spell, she noticed that both Ron and Ginny were now frowning, except the younger Weasley was focused on her. Oh yeah...the hug. Oops...

***

Only a few days remained until the first task, and Cedric still had no idea what he was going to do. Hermione had asked him to help Harry, but he he didn't have a clue where to start. Things were a little bit strained between the two of them now, and he knew that she thought he was just refusing to help Harry out of jealousy or something. He couldn't bring himself to admit that he was simply out of his depth. She was worried enough as it was.

He was on the verge of total panic when he finally caught a break. Or rather, Harry did, and was generous enough to share his luck. He was shocked when Harry cornered him one afternoon, asking if he could speak to him in private. Once they were out of earshot of Cedric's jeering friends, Cedric immediately took his chance to apologize for the obnoxious buttons that Draco had been handing out all over the castle.

Harry brushed off his apology a bit absentmindedly, and abruptly blurted out his horrifying news about about the first task.

 _They would be fighting dragons_.

Cedric was stunned. Of all the possible scenarios, fighting a dragon had never crossed his mind. He was rather touched that Harry had come to him with the information. They weren't exactly close anymore, after all. Their relationship consisted mostly of being mutual friends of Hermione's, and playing in the occasional Quidditch match. Because they were both Seekers, it didn’t matter if it was a casual pickup game or an official match between their houses, they were always on opposite sides. Of course, he knew that if he’d had a chance to help Harry, he would have. Not the least of his reasons was that not doing so might cause Hermione pain. Harry probably felt the same way. Whatever Harry’s motivation had been, at least now Cedric knew what he was facing, and he also knew exactly what he was going to do. He just hoped it would work...

***

The morning of the first task, Hermione had to practically force-feed Harry. She would have done the same for Cedric, but she noticed Henry was already doing it. She noticed that the other two champions, Fleur and Krum, didn't seem to be eating very much either. It seemed kind of funny that the huge, muscular Krum might actually be scared. Then again, the dragons were much bigger than he was, and she was pretty sure he wasn't fireproof. It occurred to her much too late that she should have tried to find a fireproofing spell for Cedric and Harry.

After breakfast, the entire student body and faculty moved down to the arena that had been set up especially for the first task; a large round area strewn with lots of huge boulders. There was a rather puny looking wooden fence set up between the ring and the surrounding viewing stands. (Was that little thing really supposed to protect the spectators?!) Hermione couldn't resist the urge to sneak into the champions tent and check on the boys. She ran into Harry first, a bit too literally, and gave him a reassuring hug. Which of them she was hoping it would reassure, she couldn't honestly say. Unfortunately, that annoying Rita Skeeter woman caught them and had her photographer take a picture. She started spouting a bunch of nonsense about 'young love,' which left Harry visibly flustered, and Hermione trying not to laugh. She glanced over at Cedric while the reporter was babbling, and he raised an eyebrow at her, throwing in a teasing smirk and a mock-questioning tilt of his head toward Harry. Hermione grinned back, and rolled her eyes. She was about to excuse herself from Harry in order to go wish Cedric luck when Ludo Bagman and Dumbledore called for the Champions' attention. Ultimately, Hermione wasn't able to get a chance to speak to Cedric before Dumbledore made her leave the tent, but she managed to shoot the Hufflepuff a warm, encouraging smile as she left. She lingered outside the tent until another Ministry official made her move along, and she couldn't help flinching when she overheard that Cedric was going to compete first.

She raced back to the viewing stands, filled with trepidation. Ginny (who had very quickly gotten over the hug she’d given Harry) had saved her a seat, and gave her a reassuring hug, and a whispered, "They'll be fine!" Ron was sitting on Ginny’s other side, waving a "Go Cedric!" banner, and carefully avoiding eye contact with Hermione. At least the banner wasn't for Krum...

Soon after Filch fired the dangerously decrepit looking starting cannon, Cedric appeared at the entrance to the arena, looking very much like his plan might be to vomit on the dragon and hope it ran off in disgust. The dragon, which had been hunched in a cluster of boulders that Hermione now realized was a makeshift nest for the large golden egg Cedric was supposed to retrieve, raised its wings menacingly and exhaled a long stream of fire, which Cedric just barely dodged. Hermione (and well over half the other female observers) shrieked his name in terror. Somehow, he found Hermione in the crowd, and gave her a quick, reassuring grin before waving his wand at one of the smaller boulders and mumbling something under his breath. Suddenly, the large rock turned into a large golden retriever, which ran up to the dragon, barking and darting around until the dragon lost interest in Cedric, and started stalking the dog around the outer perimeter of the arena. While the dragon was distracted, Cedric dashed toward the nest, and grabbed the egg it had been guarding. Hermione's heart leapt. He was going to make it!

Unfortunately, the sudden wild cheering of the crowd distracted the dragon from the dog, which was unable to get its attention again. The dragon bore down on Cedric with murder in its eyes. Cedric, who was fully exposed in the open area surrounding the nest, turned and ran as fast as he could back toward the Champions' entrance. As it turned out, he could run impressively fast, but not quite fast enough. The dragon breathed another long bout of flame at his retreating form, hitting him squarely in the back. There were several horrified screams from the horrified crowd, but despite the fact the back of his uniform was in flames and his hair was smoking, Cedric managed to stagger through the gate.

Hermione was on her feet and halfway to the medical tent before she'd consciously thought to go to him. To her great annoyance, several other girls who’d been seated on the lower levels were gathered around the entrance to the tent by the time she reached it. The small mob was being held back by a burly man in Ministry robes, but to her pleasant surprise, when she gave the intimidating wizard her name he immediately stepped aside, allowing her to pass with a sympathetic grimace. Cedric was lying on his stomach on one of four padded cots, looking paler than she'd ever seen him, except for the livid red burns across his upper back. What was left of his shirt was in a smoking pile on the floor beside the cot, and Madam Pomfrey was clucking her tongue disapprovingly, muttering about foolish, dangerous traditions while she smoothed thick white cream over the burns. "Are you okay?! Is he going to be okay?!" Hermione demanded, turning frantically from Cedric to the nurse as she dropped to her knees beside his head.

Cedric smiled weakly, and pointed at the golden egg, which was sitting on a chair nearby. "I got it."

"That's not what I asked!" Hermione grumbled, reaching out to ruffle his hair. The shorter hairs along the edge of his neck were singed, and she shuddered violently. "How bad is it?" She asked, glancing worriedly at his back.

"He'll be fine." Madam Pomfrey nodded to her, then mumbled something about how the Minister of Magic should have to do everything he expected ‘these children’ to do.

Hermione couldn't disagree with that. She sat with Cedric, whom Madam Pomfrey ordered to lie still until the ointment she'd applied had dried, until she heard Ludo Bagman's voice announce that Harry, the last champion, would be coming out shortly. She'd completely forgotten Harry was going to be competing too! She gave herself a mental slap in the forehead and glanced at Cedric, who had seemed like he was fighting a losing battle with sleep ever since Madam Pomfrey had given him a pain potion. "Go," he said, nodding drowsily. "I'll see you later."

Hermione carefully patted him on the shoulder, and took off running for the stands. She got there just in time to see Harry enter the arena. He definitely looked more frightened than Cedric had. Hermione was worried that he might freeze; his plan was sound, except for the part where he had to successfully cast a summoning spell, which he’d hadn’t yet been able to do in practice. Her fear was realized when all her friend did was dive behind a boulder and cower there in terror while the Horntail streamed fire at him. After the first minute, it started to look like the boulder was melting. "Your wand! Use your wand, Harry!" Hermione screamed when she couldn't bear to watch anymore. He'd _never_ cast the spell right if he didn't at least try!

Harry seemed to snap out of his daze, and started running for a larger, more solid-looking boulder. The dragon just missed him with another blast of flames. Hermione held her breath as Harry (stupidly) stood up, and aimed his wand at the castle, bellowing, " _Accio broom_!" Hermione crossed her fingers. His plan was absolutely brilliant, so long as the spell worked. The entire crowd seemed to hold its breath for several seconds as everyone turned toward the castle. Harry wisely ducked back down behind his boulder while he waited, and the dragon was currently working hard to melt his new hiding place. Suddenly, a gasp went up from several spectators on the side of the arena closest to the castle, and then Harry's Firebolt (the name suddenly struck Hermione as horribly ironic) suddenly shot over the top of the stands, heading straight for Harry.

"Yes!" Hermione jumped to her feet and started bouncing up and down. "You did it Harry! You did it!"

"He hasn't actually got the egg yet," Ron muttered, but she noticed that he was on his feet too, watching intently as Harry whizzed around the arena.

Everything went fine until the Horntail became so enraged at not being able to hit Harry with her fire that she managed to break the chain keeping her confined within the arena. Everyone screamed and ducked down as the puny fence suddenly seemed even less reassuring. Harry realized the monster was free and, for reasons Hermione would never understand, took off in the general direction of the castle. The dragon followed him, flying low over the top of the bleachers, and everyone began screaming even louder, and rushing to try to get a better view of what was happening up at the top of the hill. They could see the dragon circling the castle, but the stands were far enough away that it was hard to see Harry. When the dragon landed on the castle roof, and seemed to be snapping at something, everyone gasped in horror.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Harry (looking a bit singed and much the worse for wear) flew back into the arena, straight toward the egg, which he scooped up with a triumphant grin just as the dragon smashed through the upper edge of the bleachers, sending Ministry officials and faculty from all three schools scrambling for cover. Harry disappeared through the champions' gate, and Hermione, Ginny and Ron took off running for the medical tent while Charlie Weasley and the other dragon wranglers leapt into action.

Once again, the wizard guarding the medical tent let Hermione through with a passive nod. She wondered if all of the champions had been asked to make a list of approved visitors in advance in case they were injured, or if both boys had specifically asked for her after they were brought there. Either way, she had to admit to a warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest (and maybe a bit of gloating) when the wizard stopped both Ginny and Ron. Ducking her head through the flap, she found Harry sitting on the edge of one of the cots while Madam Pomfrey cleaned a cut on his chin. "Hey, Harry, can Ginny and Ron come in?"

"Ron wants to come in?" Harry asked incredulously, his jaw dropping, which earned him an impatient grunt from Madam Pomfrey.

"Yeah, you git!" Ron yelled from outside.

Harry grinned at Hermione, looking pleased, and called out, "Let them in, please!"

"That was brilliant, Harry!" Ginny gushed as she burst into the tent. She stopped short a few feet away from him, looking like she wasn't sure if she should get any closer, then flung herself at him, embracing him tightly when Madam Pomfrey moved away for a moment. "Congratulations, Harry!" She mumbled, blushing as she pulled away.

"Yeah, good job, mate," Ron mumbled somewhat bashfully.

"Thanks," Harry murmured, looking equally uncomfortable.

"Alright, you're fine, thank Merlin," Madam Pomfrey muttered. "Now get out of here before you all wake Mister Diggory," she ordered, gesturing vaguely at the cot where Cedric was now sound asleep. His back was still a very painful-looking shade of scarlet, but he seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

"Is he okay?" Hermione asked worriedly, moving closer. She felt horrible for having forgotten momentarily that he was hurt. Having both of her best friends involved in this stupid tournament was really wreaking havoc on her, mentally, emotionally and physically, and they’d only completed the first task!

"He's fine. He'll probably sleep until morning after the potion I gave him. I'll be moving him up to the infirmary once the crowd out there dwindles," the nurse replied. "Bunch of fools..." she muttered irritably, shaking her head as she rearranged some bottles in a wooden box.

Hermione wasn't sure if that comment referred to the spectators, the Champions themselves, or possibly the Ministry for allowing the Tournament in the first place. She decided not to risk annoying the healer any further, and quickly ushered Harry, Ron and Ginny out of the tent after taking one last, long, look at Cedric.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter or two, things are gonna start to heat up between Cedric and Hermione when they both finally pull their heads out of their...well...okay, so they're going to stick their heads further up their own asses before they finally pull them out, but it's coming soon, I promise! ;-)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say about this one. Yes, it is intentional that Cedric is being a little melodramatic, especially near the end. Don't we all get a little silly when we're sick? (And lovesick on top of that!) ;-)

After the first task, the focus of the student body almost immediately became the upcoming Yule Ball. It was like someone had flicked a switch, and everyone almost seemed to forget about the Triwizard Tournament. Hermione had written to her parents about the ball as soon as McGonagall made the announcement, and to her surprise her mother had sent her a beautiful gown to wear. Though she wasn't normally fond of formal social events, Hermione couldn't wait for this one. She was particularly looking forward to attending it with Cedric. He hadn't yet, but she was pretty sure he was going to ask her to go with him.

They had been spending practically every waking moment together since he’d faced the dragon. Having seen him injured, Hermione couldn't bear to let him out of her sight and longer than she had to, and he seemed equally reluctant to be separated from her. The whole tone of their relationship had changed, though it seemed neither of them dared to mention it. Instead, they'd both started to touch each other a lot more often than they used to...sitting closer together while studying in the library, for example, with their feet and knees touching. Cedric would place his hand on the small of Hermione's back whenever they walked together in the hallways, and he'd started eating breakfast and lunch with her at the Gryffindor table almost every day. Most telling, they'd taken to holding hands while walking along the lake, which they now did most days, weather permitting. 

Hermione was happier, and also more anxious than she’d ever been. She’d always thought that Cedric was attractive, in more ways than one. He was intelligent, sweet, funny, and kind. But she now realized that her feelings for him went far deeper than mere friendship.  She really wanted to say something to  _ him  _ about how she felt, but she was slightly afraid that if she actually spoke out loud about what was happening between them, the bubble would burst. She was terrified she'd find out she was imagining all the signs that seemed to indicate her feelings were reciprocated, so she hesitated, over and over again. Several times, Cedric had opened his mouth as if to say something to her, only to close it abruptly (with a very obvious blush), or he had been interrupted...usually by one of the seemingly endless horde of girls that had begun to follow him around since the first task. Hermione was getting more than a little frustrated by all of this, and had decided that if he didn't ask her to the Ball soon, she would just break tradition, and ask him herself. She knew that Harry and Ron were both agonizing over trying to find dates, so maybe Cedric was similarly terrified of having to do the asking, even though he  _ had _ to know she would say yes.

One afternoon, just a few days before the Ball, she thought she'd found a chance to help Harry. She knew that he desperately wanted to ask Cho Chang, a fifth year Ravenclaw, to go to the Ball with him. One day, after Charms class, she overheard the dark haired girl talking to one of her friends in the hallway. "The way he handled that dragon was just amazing. It couldn't keep up with him!"

"I think he likes you, Cho, I saw him looking at you the other day in the Great Hall," said the other girl, a blonde sixth year Hermione thought was named Felicity.

"Do you think he'll ask me to the Ball?" Cho asked hopefully.

"I don't know," Felicity shrugged, then looked up and noticed Hermione. "Hey, she'd know...she's his best friend,” she said, gesturing with her chin.

Hermione jumped a bit, embarrassed that she'd been caught listening. "You should ask him," she told Cho, smiling encouragingly. "He wants to go with you, but he might never get up the courage to ask you." She grinned as the other girl's face lit up.

"Really?" Cho asked excitedly, clasping her hands together in front of her.

"Yes, really." Hermione chuckled, pleased that Harry might soon be as happy as she was. Well, as happy as she’d be once Cedric finally asked her to the ball.

"See, I told you," Felicity nudged Cho with her elbow. "We need to find you the perfect gown. He's one of the Champions, after all..."

"Thank you!" Cho exclaimed over her shoulder at Hermione as her friend dragged her away, acting as if they were going shopping right then and there.

Later that evening, Hermione found Harry in the Common Room, looking a little upset. "What's wrong?" she asked, dropping onto the sofa beside him.

"The Yule Ball," he muttered, staring miserably down at his hands.

"You should ask Cho," Hermione urged, trying to hide her smile.

"I just did!" he exclaimed bitterly. "She said no!"

"She said what?" Hermione asked, confused.

"She said someone else already asked her," he muttered irritably.

"Who?" Hermione asked, wincing. What were the chances that someone else had gotten to Cho before she could ask Harry?!

"Cedric," Harry practically growled, finally looking up, and frowning at her. "I thought he was going with  _ you _ ?" he asked, almost accusingly.

Hermione felt like her stomach had dropped through the floor. "S-so did I..." she managed to whisper, fighting back tears. "Um...excuse me!" she blurted, jumping up and bolting for the stairs to her dorm room. She barely managed to slam and lock the door behind her before she fell to her knees on the thick carpet, breaking down in painful, choking sobs. If she hadn't heard it from Harry, who had heard it from Cho herself, she never would have believed that Cedric would ask the Ravenclaw to the ball. She didn't even know Cho and Cedric knew each other. He'd certainly never mentioned Cho to Hermione, not even in passing. Maybe Harry was mistaken?

She suddenly remembered the voice of the girl on the train at the beginning of the year... soft and breathy...just like Cho's.

Her stomach flipped sickeningly, and she raced to the small bathroom she shared with the other three girls in the room. She bolted toward the toilet, where she immediately lost everything she had eaten at dinner. As she rinsed out her mouth and brushed her teeth afterwards, she looked in the mirror, wincing at the pale, blotchy face gazing miserably back at her. She had never felt so betrayed in her life. Swiping irritably at the tears still trickling down her cheeks, she told her reflection, "I can't ever let him know how I feel about him now. I'm such an idiot..."

"I never thought I'd hear you say  _ that _ ," Her reflection mumbled incredulously. "What happened?"

"None of your business," Hermione muttered bitterly, spitting in the sink, then turning off the faucet.

"No need to be rude..." Her reflection grumbled as she left the room.

***

Cedric threw himself face down on his bed, and closed the curtains surrounding it with a wave of his wand before flinging it somewhat violently toward his nightstand. Ignoring his roommates slightly confused inquiries, he rolled over on his back, grabbed his pillow, covered his face with it, and screamed frustratedly.

“Cedric?” Henry asked cautiously. “What’s wrong, mate?” 

Cedric felt the edge of the mattress dip as his friend sat down beside him. Unlike his other roommates, Henry’s presence was tolerable, so he dropped the pillow and sat up. “Hermione’s going with Krum.” Henry gave him a blank look, so he added, “To the Yule Ball!”

“What? Krum? Hermione?” Henry asked, looking startled. “I thought she was going with you? Didn’t you ask her?” Henry had been encouraging him to tell Hermione how he felt about her ever since the first task, but Cedric had yet to get up the nerve to do so, or even to officially ask her to the Ball. Given the way she’d been acting since the first task, he was pretty sure she felt the same way, but that small lingering doubt always left him struggling to actually say the words, despite his many failed attempts. He’d had to settle for enjoying the increased closeness between them. He could kick himself for not finding the courage enough sooner. Now, it was too late. 

“I overheard some girl asking Krum to go to the Ball with her after lunch. He said he couldn’t because he was going with ‘Harmony.’” Cedric scowled at the memory.

“Um...” Henry raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Harmony?”

“He pointed right at Hermione across the courtyard when he said it. Moron can’t even say her name right,” Cedric grunted, and grabbed his pillow again, punching it hard enough to cause a small tear. A few feathers flew into the air, and dropped the pillow with an irritated sigh. “I’m such an idiot!”

“It’s just a pillow...” Henry began, then trailed off. “Oh...right. Hermione. Well, it’s just the Ball. It’s not like they’re getting married.” He took a step back when Cedric leveled him with an angry glare at the mere suggestion. “Look, I’m sure you can still find someone to go with. You’re a Champion. Lots of girls would love to go with you.”

Cedric rolled his eyes. “That’s not the problem. I’ve already got someone.” He wrinkled his nose slightly, remembering how Cho had fawned all over him when he impulsively agreed to go to the Ball with her that afternoon. He probably should have thought about her offer a bit longer, but Krum had walked past just as she had cornered him, and Cedric hadn’t really been thinking about anything other than wanting to throttle the Bulgarian when he said yes. Once it sank in what he had just agreed to, he figured that going with Cho was better than going alone or asking someone other than Hermione. He didn’t want to be the only Champion at the Ball without a date, and since he couldn’t go with Hermione, he didn’t really care who accompanied him. “I just can’t believe Hermione agreed to go with  _ him _ ,” he moaned quietly. 

“That really doesn’t seem like something she would do,” Henry murmured, patting him on the shoulder sympathetically. “I thought she was as crazy about you as you are about her. For what it’s worth, they’ll probably look ridiculous together. He’s the size of a house.”

Cedric groaned, and flopped back down on the bed. “Not helping.” His stomach lurched at the idea of Hermione with that buffoon. How was he ever going to get through the Ball, having to watch her dancing with another wizard? He already felt sick, and he hadn’t even seen them together yet. He had no idea how he was ever going to face Hermione again. Maybe if he was lucky, he really  _ would _ get sick, and could stay in bed for a couple of days. Or months...

“Are you going to be alright?” Henry asked.

“Presumably,” Cedric muttered sarcastically into one of his intact pillows. “Could you just leave me alone?” 

“No problem,” Henry replied, and immediately got up and left the room. That was one of the things Cedric liked most about Henry...he knew when to let him have his space. A lot of their fellow ‘Puffs seemed to be completely unaware of the concept of alone time. Once he was, in fact, alone, Cedric closed his bed-curtains again, and rolled onto his back, where he stared blankly at the ceiling for a long time, rehashing in his mind all of the many chances he’d had to ask Hermione to the Ball himself. He pretended to be asleep when his roommates returned just before curfew, but it was hours before he finally succumbed to exhaustion.

***

The next day, Hermione was determined to act as if nothing was amiss. Her plan was thrown off a bit when Cedric never appeared at breakfast. He must have realized that she was now aware that he'd been hiding his relationship with Cho from her all year, if not longer than that. One brief glance over at Cho's beaming expression made her push her oatmeal away in a hurry, her appetite now completely non-existent. Harry looked even more miserable than she did. He was slumped over the table, slowly tearing a piece of toast into almost microscopic crumbs. Ginny was watching him from the other side of the table, frowning slightly, and when she saw Hermione looking her way, she shot her a sad, sympathetic smile, so she must have heard what happened. Hermione was relieved that at least she wouldn’t have to explain her dreary mood to at least one person. 

Ron, of course, was oblivious. "Why is everyone so gloomy this morning?" He asked after Harry had murdered his third piece of toast.

"You're such an idiot, Ron," Ginny grunted disgustedly.

"What? What did I miss?" Ron asked his sister confusedly. "Everyone’s acting like their puppy died or something. Oh Merlin...did something happen to Fang?"

"Excuse me," Harry mumbled, abruptly getting up and leaving the Hall.     

"Honestly, Ronald, you really are an idiot," Hermione muttered, also standing and grabbing her satchel.

"I don't understand..." Ron mumbled helplessly. Hermione almost felt sorry for him. As she walked away, she heard Ginny speaking too quietly to make out her words. Then, Ron said, "Oh. But why would 'Mione be so upset about that?"

"You really are dense, Ron!" Ginny's declared rather loudly, making Hermione crack a faint smile for the first time since she'd heard the news.

When she reached the entrance hall, she decided to go outside to the courtyard, since she still had a little while before her first class. Casting a warming spell around herself, she sat down near one of the frozen fountains, and looked out over the grounds. After a few minutes, she heard heavy footsteps crunching in the snow behind her. Thinking it might be Cedric, she took a steadying breath, then turned her head toward the sound, "Where have you- Oh!"

It wasn't Cedric. Viktor Krum was standing there, shuffling his weight from foot to foot. "Excuse me, uh...Herminony?" He struggled visibly with her name.

"Uh...s-sort of?" Hermione stammered, too confused by his presence, and the fact that he knew her name (kind of), to bother correcting him.

"I am Viktor Krum," he bowed politely.

"Yes." Hermione nodded, managing to leave off the, 'Duh!' that desperately wanted to accompany her acknowledgement.

"I vas vondering if you might join me for ze Yule Ball. If you are not going vith someone..." He shot her a questioning look, and seemed to be holding his breath.

Hermione stared at him in complete shock, certain she must have misunderstood. "Th-the Yule Ball?"

"Yes," He nodded.

"With you?" She asked dazedly.

"Hopefully," he said, smiling slightly. It made him look a lot younger.

"H-how old are you?" She blurted before she could stop herself, then decided that it was a very legitimate concern considering she was only fifteen, and he looked about twenty five.

"I am seventeen," he replied, smiling again, a bit wider.

"No way!" Hermione exclaimed, sincerely shocked.

"I can show you my birth certificate...It vouldn't be ze first time..." he chuckled.

"No, I believe you," Hermione blushed. "You just look a lot older than your age."

"So do you," he replied softly.

"I'm fifteen," Hermione said, knowing he probably knew she was only a fourth year.

"I know zat, or I vouldn't have asked you," he winked. "So...vill you go with me?"

"Uh..." Hermione thought about it for a moment. The whole situation with Cedric might be easier to deal with if she had her own date to the Ball. She really couldn't care less who that date might be. "Um, okay?"

"You do not sound too sure," he frowned slightly.

"No...I mean, yes, I'm sure," Hermione shook her head slightly.

"Excellent!" He flashed her a wide smile, and she suddenly saw why so many girls followed him every morning when he jogged near the lake. When he wasn't brooding, he was quite attractive. He started to turn away, then turned back. "Oh, my mother said I should ask you vat color you vill be vearing, so I can make sure my tie doesn't...vat's ze vord? Clack?"

"Clash." Hermione giggled. "And I'm wearing periwinkle."

"Periwinkle," he repeated, as if to commit it to memory. Nodding, he said, "I bet you vill look very nice in periwinkle." With that, he grinned, winked, then turned and walked away.

Hermione watched him go, pretty sure her eyebrows had taken up permanent residence near her hairline. She stared blankly at the castle entrance until the bell rang to indicate it was time to head for first period. Rousing herself, she picked up her satchel, and hurried to the Potions classroom in a daze.

The rest of the day seemed to pass like a very surreal dream. After dinner, Ron and Harry joined her in the library, since midterms were coming up soon. The boys soon started arguing over which of them Hermione would go to the Ball with, at which point she haughtily informed them that she already had a date. She winced inwardly, wishing that she had thought to ask Harry to go with her immediately after what she was now mentally referring to as the "Cedric/Cho debacle". There wouldn’t have been any chance of Harry misunderstanding her intentions. She was already beginning to worry that the evening with Krum was going to be awkward, and horribly uncomfortable. She didn't even know him! She'd also started obsessing slightly over why in the world he had asked  _ her _ , out of all the girls at Hogwarts. Most of them were falling at his feet. All she knew for sure was that she was no longer looking forward to the Ball at all. She couldn't wait for the whole thing to be over with so she could go home for the holidays, and wallow in her misery.

Speaking of her misery, she hadn't seen Cedric all day, which was both a huge relief, and driving her mad with worry all at the same time. She finally broke down as she was leaving the library just before curfew, and asked Hannah Abbot if she knew where he was.

"I dunno. One of his roommates said he wasn't feeling well today," Hannah said, shrugging uncertainly. "But I saw him before I came to dinner. He was just sitting and staring at the fire in the common room."

Hermione frowned. "If you see him again, could you tell him I said 'Hi,' and I hope he's alright?"

"Of course," Hannah nodded, and smiled understandingly. "Or...I could just let you into our common room so you can tell him yourself..." she offered after chewing her lip for a moment.

"Oh, no, that's alright," Hermione shook her head quickly. She definitely wasn't ready to face him yet. "I don't want to intrude..."

"Isn't he your boyfriend?" Hannah asked, looking confused. "I mean...you're always together during the day, and he talks about you all the time."

“He does?” Hermione's breath caught in her throat. "Um...no. I don't know. I mean, w-we never really talked about it..."

"Oh...” Hannah frowned confusedly. “Well, maybe you should. Talk about it, I mean."

"He asked someone else to the Yule Ball," Hermione mumbled, wishing this conversation would end.

Hannah blinked. "That doesn't sound like him at all. I've never heard him talk about any girl but you."

Hermione bit her lip, her eyes stinging. "I don't know why he did, but he did," she shrugged helplessly. Her eyes began to well up with tears, and she blinked rapidly hoping to keep from breaking down.

"Aw, Hermione, are you sure he really asked someone else?" Hannah surprised her by giving her a comforting hug. "I don't know him that well, but I'm sure there must be a misunderstanding. The other guys in his dorm are always teasing him about you...never anyone else."

Hermione frowned. "No, he's going with Cho Chang. I'm sure of it. Harry asked her to go with him yesterday, and she said she's going with Cedric."

Just then, Ginny walked up to them, looking both excited and annoyed. "Okay, I was just talking to my friend Luna...she's in Ravenclaw. She told me that Cho Change has been, like, absolutely  _ crazy _ obsessed with Cedric for as long as Luna has known her. So, at least two and a half years, if not longer? I think Cho asked Cedric to the Ball, not the other way around."

"See?!" Hannah smiled at Hermione.

"But he said yes," Hermione pointed out sadly, not feeling much better. "Why would he say yes if he likes me?"

"I'm sure there's more to it," Hannah insisted, patting her on the shoulder. "I'll see what I can find out."

"It doesn't matter, I already said I’d go with Viktor Krum," Hermione muttered miserably. Hannah and Ginny both gasped, then gawked at her almost comically.  “He asked me this afternoon, and I didn’t have anyone else to go with, so I said yes,” She explained, shrugging helplessly.

"But you like Cedric?" Hannah asked rather pointedly. Hermione nodded reluctantly. "See? You like him, but said yes to someone else, too. So maybe he had some reason you don't know about for agreeing to go with Cho."

"I guess," Hermione shrugged uncertainly. "But even if there is some reasonable explanation, I already committed to going with Viktor."

"The Ball isn't the end of the world, you know. There's like, all the rest of your lives to think about," Hannah winked mischievously. "I'm going to go talk to him," she announced, then turned and quickly walked toward the corridor where Hermione knew the Hufflepuff dormitory was hidden.

"She's right, you know," Ginny said as they watched her walk away. "I'm pretty sure Cedric likes you. It’s  _ so _ obvious. Something weird is going on. I bet Cho slipped him a love potion or something."

Hermione frowned. She hadn't thought of that. "Hannah did say that he was sick today..."

"See?" Ginny exclaimed. "I bet Cho drugged him. I don't trust that girl further than I can throw her."

"That wouldn't be because Harry has a crush on her, would it?" Hermione asked gently.

"Shut up," Ginny stuck her tongue out. Just then a girl with long curly blonde hair walked by, and she said, "Oh, there's Luna. I'm going to go see if she can find out more about Cho..." With that, she ran off abruptly.

Rubbing her forehead, Hermione sighed and hefted her satchel higher on her shoulder before heading to the library to try to study for her Arithmancy midterm.

***

Cedric had partially gotten his wish. His late night had resulted in an excruciating headache, which persisted through most of the day, giving him a perfectly valid excuse to stay in bed. The sharp, stabbing pain in his temples had finally started to ease up late in the afternoon, but by then it was too late to bother trying to attend his last class of the day. He did crawl out of bed, and moved to the Common Room just before classes let out for the day, hoping to catch one of his classmates and get the day’s assignments before everyone went to dinner. He lucked out when Anthony Rickett happened to stop by the dormitory before heading to the Great Hall. Unfortunately, the notes he gave Cedric to copy were barely legible, and his headache started to come back after a while. He had put everything aside, and was resting his head on his arms for a moment when someone tapped him gently on the shoulder. He must have dozed off because the candle he was using had burned down quite a bit, his headache had definitely returned, his neck was stiff, and the room was now full of students, many of them gazing at him curiously. He looked up, and found Hannah Abbott, a soft-spoken younger ‘Puff who rarely spoke to him, standing beside his chair, biting her lip thoughtfully. “Can I talk to you for a moment, Cedric?” she asked quietly.

Something about her expression made him decide not to go with his first impulse, which was to politely blow her off, then head back to his room, lie down, and see if maybe if he tried hard enough, he could will himself to die. “Um, sure. What’s up?” He asked instead, smiling faintly, and trying to rub the kink out of his neck. 

Hannah glanced around at their fellow students, and said, “Maybe in private?”

Cedric raised an eyebrow, but again, something in her eyes made him go along with her. He gathered his things, and followed her out into the hallway. She moved a few meters away from the entrance to the dormitory, just out of earshot of any arriving ‘Puffs, and then turned to face him. “Did you ask Cho Chang to the Yule Ball, or did she ask you?” she asked abruptly.

“Huh?” Cedric hadn’t been sure what he expected from the younger girl, but that sure wasn’t it.

“Did. You. Ask. Cho?” Hanna repeated slowly, as if he was mentally deficient.

“She asked me,” he replied, shaking his head slightly. “Why do you want to know?” he asked suspiciously.

“ _ I _ don’t, particularly, but Hermione...” Hannah paused, bit her lip, then said, “Look...she’s really upset that you’re going with Cho! I’m just trying to figure out why you’re not going with  _ her _ . It makes no sense.”

Cedric stared at her for a long moment, then shook his head again, feeling completely confused. “But...Hermione’s going with Krum...”

“Yeah, but only because she heard that you were going with Cho,” Hannah shot back, glaring slightly.

Now he was really confused. “No. She agreed to go with him first. I only said yes to Cho because I heard Krum say he was going with Hermione!” 

Hannah raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure he had already asked her? Because she just told me that she only said yes to Krum today. Harry told her that Cho said she was going with you yesterday.”

Cedric felt all the blood drain from his face. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, his heart pounding.

“Yes, I’m sure!” Hannah chuckled, nodding her head emphatically. “I don’t know how, but you two obviously got things mixed up somehow. Hermione’s really upset. She wanted to go with you.”

“You’re sure?” Cedric repeated incredulously.

“Yes!” Hannah laughed outright, and smacked him lightly on the arm. “She likes you, you daft fool. Merlin knows why...you’re not too bright, are you?” She grinned teasingly and started heading back toward their common room as the curfew bell started to chime.

Cedric considered ignoring the curfew warning, and heading straight to the Gryffindor dormitory right then and there to try to talk to Hermione, but he knew he’d just get in trouble, so he reluctantly followed Hannah back inside the common room, grinning from ear to ear, his headache completely gone. Maybe life was still worth living after all...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Hermione finally figured it out. Sorry for the drama...I warned ya Cho was going to be a problem. She hasn't even begun to show her weirdness yet...


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I'm trying to update this, and my story "Hopeless? Never" pretty quickly because I'm going to be going on anti-anxiety medication soon, and I know from past experience that it kills my muse, and any desire to write (or even proofread stuff I've already written), for at least a month (if not longer). I'm trying to wrap stuff up before I start taking it because I don't want to leave people hanging (again). So, there might be more typos in the remaining chapters cuz I'm rushing...plus the formating is acting up here on AO3, and putting extra spaces in weird places. I've tried to fix them, but I might have missed some.
> 
> BTW, this is my favorite chapter of this story (so far)!

Hermione was on her way to breakfast when a hand suddenly reached out from behind a tapestry and grabbed her arm, pulling her into a dark, hidden alcove. "What the-" She shoved her wand at her attacker, who was nothing more than a darker shadow in the small, unlit space.

"Whoa! 'Mione, it's me!" Cedric's voice filled her with relief. " _Lumos_!" he murmured, and his wand filled the alcove with a soft bluish glow.

"What are you doing?" Hermione whispered fiercely, still annoyed with him, though she was glad to see that he was no longer sick. "You scared me half to death!"

"I need to talk to you," he whispered back. "I talked to Hannah last night. Is it true you only said you'd go to the Ball with Krum after you heard I was going with Cho?"

"Of course it’s true! Why else would I agree to go with anyone but you?" Hermione blurted, then blushed at the implications of her statement.

Cedric sighed heavily, then stared up at the ceiling of the alcove for several seconds. "I really am such an idiot..."

"Why did you ask Cho? What happened, Cedric?" Hermione asked. "I...I thought we were going to go together."

"I thought we were, too," he muttered, looking rather miserable. "The only reason I didn't formally ask you was because, well, I was a little nervous. I was going to ask you. I _was_ . But then I heard Krum say _he_ was going with you. He sounded so certain...I thought he'd already asked you. And for the record, I _didn’t_ ask Cho, _she_ asked _me_ not long after I overheard Krum. Plus, she said that _you_ had told her to ask me..." he trailed off and gave her a rather hurt, questioning look.

"Oh gods," Hermione groaned and rested her forehead against his chest. "When she and I talked, I thought she was talking about Harry! It never occurred to me that she was talking about _you_!"

Cedric was quiet for a moment, then his shoulders started shaking. Hermione looked up at him in confusion, and realized he was laughing. "We're morons," he told her, shaking his head slightly.

"Complete idiots," Hermione agreed, beginning to laugh too. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

"I don't know, I guess we kind of have to go to the ball with them," he sighed quietly. "I don't think either of them deliberately set out to confuse us."

"I suppose," Hermione sighed heavily. "I really don't want to go with him, you know."

"I really don't want to go with her, either," Cedric murmured, cupping her chin in his hand. "I'm so sorry, ‘MIone. I should have just asked you." He started to lean toward her, tilting his head slightly, and Hermione's heart skipped a few beats as she realized he was about to kiss her.

"I could have asked you..." she whispered, closing her eyes just before his lips touched hers.

They kissed rather chastely at first, which wasn’t surprising since neither of them really had much experience. Then, Cedric grew more bold, sliding his hands into her hair, and pulling her closer as he flicked his tongue across her lower lip. Hermione moaned quietly, and he took a step toward her, pushing her against the wall behind her, and slipping his free hand to the small of her back. He held her close as he kissed her more firmly, then sucked her lower lip between his own, and nibbled gently. Hermione gasped as she felt a pleasant twinge in her lower abdomen. She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, and began running her hands up and down his back as he tentatively slipped his tongue between her lips, and rubbed it against her own. Hermione moaned again and sucked lightly on his tongue, eliciting a loud groan from Cedric, who pulled away abruptly, gasping for air. "Whoa...sorry..." He panted, resting his forehead against hers. "I didn't mean to get carried away..."

"Do you hear me complaining?" Hermione giggled breathlessly, still gently stroking his back. "Wow."

"Yeah. Wow." He smiled happily, and kissed her lightly on the nose. "You do know I love you, right?" he asked, biting his lip anxiously.

“I do now.” Hermione tilted her head back, and kissed him briefly on the lips, pulling away before things could become heated again. "I love you, too," she whispered somewhat shyly. She couldn't seem to stop smiling foolishly, but he appeared to have the same problem, grinning madly as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

"I've wanted to tell you how I felt for so long," he whispered against her hair, then kissed her forehead. "I'm just a big chicken, I guess."

"Me too," Hermione admitted sheepishly. "At least you're not supposed to be the brave one," she sighed ruefully. "Some Gryffindor I am."

Cedric smiled sympathetically, and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. "I guess we both just needed a kick in the arse to get us to admit how we feel?"

"Maybe we should send Cho and Viktor thank you notes?" Hermione joked.

"Um, I'm not sure about Viktor, but I don't think Cho would appreciate that," Cedric murmured, leaning back a bit so he could look her in the eye. "I think she might be a problem," he admitted worriedly.

Hermione thought about what Ginny had told her, and winced. "I’m afraid so. One of her housemates told Ginny that she's, and I quote, ‘crazy obsessed’ with you."

"Maybe I should tell her I won't go to the Ball with her after all," Cedric suggested, rather eagerly.

Hermione thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No, just tell her the truth...you mistakenly thought that I was going with someone else when you agreed to go with her, but now we're...uh..." she trailed off, and cocked her head to one side, not sure exactly how to describe their relationship. She didn’t want to come off as too presumptuous.

Cedric smiled tenderly at her. "I'll tell her you're my girlfriend, but I'll still go with her because I'd already agreed to, but it’s definitely not a date. And if she has a problem with that, I won't go with her at all,” he said, shaking his head slightly.

Hermione beamed at him. "I'll tell Viktor the same thing. I don't think he'll care much either way."

"Too bad we can't just get them to go together," Cedric grinned. Suddenly a loud rumbling filled the alcove, and Hermione looked around anxiously. "Relax...it's my stomach. I didn't really eat anything yesterday. I was kind of upset."

"Me too." Hermione chuckled sheepishly. "Let's get breakfast! I'm starving!"

Cedric smiled at her adoringly, and said, "Just one thing, first..."

Easily anticipating his next move, Hermione stretched up on her toes, and met him halfway in a soft, lingering kiss. She gently nibbled on his lower lip, and he pressed her up against the wall again, ducking his head lower to kiss her behind the ear...until his stomach growled again, and she pushed him away with a laugh. "Let's feed you before someone thinks the dragons are back," she teased.

"Ugh...not funny," he shuddered, and reached back to rub the back of his head, where the hair had finally grown back to its normal length. Offering her his other arm, he pushed the tapestry aside, and said, "After you..."

Hermione was looking back at him when she emerged from the alcove, and ended up running into someone passing by, almost knocking the other person down. "I'm so sorry!" She yelped, catching them by the arm.

"That's alright," a soft voice murmured. The other girl was looking down, dusting imaginary dirt from her robes, but Hermione recognized the voice, and froze on the spot.

Cedric stepped out from behind the tapestry just then, and bumped into her. Hermione closed her eyes as she felt him freeze as well. "Oh," he mumbled. "Shit."

Cho looked up and smiled at him, then shifted her gaze back to Hermione. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced suspiciously at the tapestry behind them. "What's going on?" She asked, her voice laced with venom.

Cedric forced a cheerful smile on his face (with obvious effort). "Just the person I was looking for. I need to speak with you, Cho."

Hermione cringed at how phony his casual tone sounded, but Cho seemed to relax slightly. She reached out and stroked Cedric's arm, forcing Hermione to suppress the urge to smack her. Cedric shot Hermione a beseeching look, clearly asking for help, but Hermione just smiled tightly, and said, "I'll see you at breakfast, Cedric."

He shot her a look that said that she was going to be in trouble later, then forced the smile back on his face, and said, "Okay, 'Mione."

As Hermione walked slowly toward the Great Hall, she heard Cho croon in a sickeningly sweet tone, "So, what did you want to talk to me about, luv?" She barely suppressed a disgusted groan, but she really wanted to hear was said, so she slowed her steps and held her breath.

She heard the low, unintelligible rumble of Cedric's voice, followed by a long pause. Then, "You what?!" Cho's angry shriek easily carried down the hall. "You...you can't do that! You're mine!"

 _That_ was more than enough. Hermione turned on her heel, and started marching back toward them, clenching her fists. Cho was punching Cedric in the chest repeatedly, and she wasn’t holding back. Hermione could hear the impact of each strike against his flesh. Cedric was struggling to catch her flying fists without hurting her. His eyes lit up with relief when he saw that Hermione was coming back. " _Petrificus Totalus_!" Hermione growled, angrily slashing her wand at the other girl. Cho went stiff, and started to fall over, but Cedric caught her by the elbow, and leaned her against the wall instead of letting her fall.

"You're gonna get in trouble for that," he murmured worriedly, shooting Hermione a grateful smile.

"No I won't. She was hitting you," Hermione pointed out. “And you’re a prefect!”

"It didn't hurt," he shrugged, gingerly rubbing his chest in a way that made her doubt his claim.

"Well, I didn't hurt her, either. Trust me, I'm pretty familiar with how it feels to be petrified," Hermione reminded him with a smirk. Turning toward Cho, she gritted her teeth, and said, "I'm going to release you now, but if you do anything to threaten either of us, I'll petrify you again, and take you directly to Dumbledore." There was no way for the other girl to agree her terms, so Hermione had to hope for the best as she murmured, " _Finite Incantatem!_ "

"How could you possibly want _her_ instead of me?" Cho demanded angrily, glaring at Cedric. "I mean...she's ugly...that hair! And she's way too young for you!"

"She's barely younger than you are, Cho," Cedric said calmly. "And I _love_ her hair. It gives her character." Hermione smiled at him, but kept quiet, deciding to let him continue to handle the situation. "Look, Hermione and I agreed we were going to keep our prior commitments for the Ball, since it's so close that you might have trouble finding someone else to go with. But if you can't be mature about this, then I'm sorry, but I won't go with you."

Cho opened and closed her mouth a few times, huffing angrily. Then, clenching her teeth, she growled, "I'll see you Saturday..." and stomped off back in the direction of the Ravenclaw dormitory.

"Well, that went well..." Hermione mumbled after she was safely out of earshot.

"Right?" Cedric laughed nervously. "I hope she doesn't go to Dumbledore over you hexing her."

"She attacked you. I was defending you. I think Dumbledore would understand," Hermione muttered.

"I guess," Cedric sighed. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he said, "My hero. Heroine. Whatever..."

Just then, Hermione's stomach decided to growl even more loudly than his had earlier. "Come on, let's go eat before anything else can happen."

When they reached the Great Hall, Ron and Harry were nowhere to be seen, but Ginny was sitting at one end of the Ravenclaw table with her friend Luna, so they walked over to where the two girls were sitting. "Mind if we join you?" Hermione asked cheerfully.

Ginny looked up at her from her omelet, then glanced at Cedric, then back at Hermione. A grin slowly spread across her face, and she tilted her head subtly, having obviously caught on that something was going on. "Good morning?" she asked, emphasising the question heavily.

"It’s a very good morning," Hermione said, grinning happily.

"It's about bloody time!" Ginny exclaimed, pulling her down on the bench beside her, and hugging her excitedly. "What took you so long, Diggory?" She teased as he sat down on the other side of Hermione.

"Not everyone is a Gryffindor, Weasley." He shrugged slightly. "I don't see you asking Harry out..." he added quietly.

Ginny winced, and Hermione elbowed him in the side. Hoping to change the subject, she turned to Luna, who was watching quietly from the other side of the table, and said, "You must be Luna? I'm Hermione."

Luna nodded absently, but she was staring at Cedric with a rather disconcerting look on her face. "You have more nargles than anyone I've ever seen," she murmured worriedly.

"Huh?" Cedric asked, looking questioningly at Hermione, who shrugged confusedly at him.

"They're not good. A lot of times, if someone has a lot of nargles, it means something bad is going to happen to them soon. And you have a lot..." Luna wrinkled her nose at him.

Hermione glanced at Ginny, who now looked worried too. "Well, uh, he did get burned by a dragon not long ago, so maybe he has these nargle things because something bad _already_ happened to him?" she suggested, trying to ignore the sudden feeling of dread that was threatening to wash over her. This was the happiest day of her life, and she wasn't about to let some strange girl ruin it for her.

Luna frowned thoughtfully, and tilted her head back and forth as she continued to gaze at Cedric for a while longer. "Maybe." She finally shrugged dismissively, and went back to eating her scrambled eggs without another word.

Hermione glanced at Cedric, who grinned and circled his finger around his temple in the universal gesture for ’crazy’ before reaching for the platter of bacon in front of him. Hermione smiled back at him, and served herself a bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup and brown sugar, humming as she watched the sugar melt into the warm cereal. She was determined that from here on out, nothing was going to bring her down.

***

Cedric felt like he was walking on air as he entered Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration classroom that morning. After how horrible he’d felt the day before, he still couldn’t believe how well everything had turned out with Hermione. In retrospect, he’d been rather foolish, agonizing over telling her how he felt. The words had come so easily, once he finally got up the nerve. And she’d said them back!

“You told her?” Henry whispered out of the side of his mouth as Professor McGonagall swept into the room and made her way toward the front of the class.

“We’re dating!” Cedric whispered back excitedly (and a touch too loudly).

The entire class began to laugh, and Professor McGonagall looked up from the parchments she’d been straightening on her desk, clearing her throat irritably. “Congratulations, Mr. Diggory. If you’re finished, I’d like to begin...”

“Sorry, Ma’am,” Cedric mumbled, truly appalled that he’d disrupted the class. A few other students continued to snicker, but the class soon settled down as they all began to practice a spell that was supposed to alter the color of their eyebrows. NEWT level classes really were strange sometimes.

“Congratulations, Ced,” Henry whispered after about ten minutes, when Professor McGonagall was occupied, reversing whatever had caused Anthony Rickett’s lips to turn lime green.

Cedric smiled briefly at his friend, then turned back toward the mirror on the desk in front of him. They were supposed to be casting the spell non-verbally, which required a great deal more cooperation than verbal spells. Unfortunately, his mind kept wandering back to the kisses he’d shared with Hermione in the alcove that morning. He had kissed a few other girls, but none that really meant anything to him, and the kisses hadn’t been that...intense. He’d been a little surprised by how...not awkward it had been to go from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend.

Hermione was his _girlfriend_! Cedric was...

“You’re pink!” Henry exclaimed suddenly, drawing him out of his happy thoughts.

“What?!” Cedric glanced over at his friend’s horrified face, then back toward the mirror. “Bloody hell!!!”

“Mr. Diggory! Language!” Professor McGonagall scolded, clicking her tongue disapprovingly. “You were only supposed to change your eyebrows, Cedric...”

Cedric looked up from the mirror, slowly dragging his gaze from the vision of himself with pink eyebrows, eyelashes and a full head of bright, bubblegum pink hair. “I-I don’t know what happened, Professor. I wasn’t even trying to cast the spell just then...”

Professor McGonagall smirked slightly. “Gee, I wonder why?” she murmured sarcastically. “No matter, just let me reverse it...” She stepped back and raised her wand, aiming it at his head as she calmly intoned, “ _Reparifarge_!” She peered at him a moment, then frowned and raised her wand again, this time chanting, “ _Conmutatio Pigmentum_!” After a second, she grunted irritably and crossed her arms over her chest. “Leave it to _you_ to accidentally cast a spell I cannot undo...”

Cedric looked back in the mirror, frowning at his still-pink hair. “Is this permanent Professor?” He turned to glare at Henry, who had broken into quiet, helpless giggles.

“It shouldn’t be, no. I simply cannot reverse the effect with any of the usual spells. You’ll need an untransfiguration potion, that’s all. Talented though you may be, no spell can hold up against an untransfiguration potion. Run along to the infirmary, and don’t bother coming back today. Young love tends to render even the most talented wizards useless at Transfiguration. Especially when it’s newly blossomed.” She smiled sympathetically and made shooing motions toward the door, then turned toward another student who had called her name...probably in regard to the fact the girl’s eyebrows were missing entirely.

“Lucky!” Henry hissed, grinning teasingly before reluctantly turning back to his own mirror.

Cedric quickly gathered up his things and headed for the infirmary, glad that the halls were pretty much deserted. The only beings he ran into were Mrs. Norris, who blinked at him, then ran off around a corner; and Peeves, who cackled gleefully upon seeing him, and took off shouting, “Pretty Pink Prefect! Pretty Pink Prefect!” at the top of his lungs. Cedric quickened his pace before the poltergeist could attract any human attention.

Madam Pomfrey took one look at him, rolled her eyes and gestured amusedly toward a nearby stool. “Transfiguration?”

“Sorta?” He replied, blushing.

“Sit. I’ll get you a potion...” the nurse said, chuckling and shaking her head as she hurried into her office. She returned a moment later with a bottle of thick, bright purple paste. Cedric wrinkled his nose at the thought of having to swallow the noxious looking stuff, but she pulled a paintbrush from the pocket of her apron, dipped it in the bottle, and said, “Lucky for you, this potion is made to work topically. Many times victims of transfiguration accidents are no longer equipped to take anything orally.”

“Thank Merlin,” Cedric mumbled, eyeing the bottle warily even though he didn’t have to drink it. There were green chunks floating in it, and he wasn’t thrilled at the thought of having the stuff all over his head. Especially his eyelashes. As it turned out, not even having his head thoroughly slathered in gooey, rather swampy-smelling muck could take his mind off Hermione for long. He was daydreaming about taking her to Hogsmeade on Saturday before the Ball when Madam Pomfrey patted him on the shoulder.

“You’re done, Mr. Diggory. You can go ahead into the lavatory and wash that gunk off, and then you’re free to leave,” the nurse said, still looking amused. “Who’s the lucky girl, then?” she asked as he was walking away.

“Gods, is it really that obvious?” Cedric asked, turning to look at her.

“Only to those with eyes,” she replied, smiling in much the same way Professor McGonagall had.

Cedric sighed, shrugged sheepishly and went into the lavatory. After he had rinsed the potion from his face and hair, he decided to use the loo before going to the library to study until his next class began. He had just finished his business when he glanced down and gasped in horror. “Oh, bloody hell...” He briefly considered just ignoring the fact that his pubic hair was also pink, but then realized that sooner or later, someone else might see, and he’d never live it down. The showers in the locker rooms at the Quidditch pitch were pretty exposed...and that particular shade of pink was extremely eye-catching. Groaning, he pulled his trousers back up, re-zipped them, washed his hands, and shuffled back out into the main room of the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey was nowhere in sight. “Uh....Madam Pomfrey?! You...uh...missed a spot...” he called out, rubbing the back of his neck and wishing the floor would swallow him whole.  

Madam Pomfrey appeared in the door of her office with the bottle and paintbrush in hand. She gazed critically at his head for a moment, looking confused. “Where?”

“Uh...not up there,” Cedric muttered, blushing. “Can I maybe...I think I should apply it myself!” There was no way he was letting her do it...

She cocked her head to one side questioningly, then her eyes widened in understanding. “Oh! Down...” She glanced very briefly at his crotch, then back at his face. “I see. Yes, you should, er...handle that on your own. You might want to check everywhere while you're at it. Your armpits...” Her lips twitched as she shoved the bottle and brush into his hands, spun on her heel, and darted back into her office, slamming the door behind her.

Cedric ignored the muffled snickers coming from behind the closed door, and returned to the lavatory. He hoped the rest of his classes went better than Transfiguration. At least he didn’t have Potions...

***

Hermione’s determination not to let anything bother her that day lasted until her second class of the day, when the fourth year Gryffindors had Herbology with the Ravenclaws. She didn't notice at first, but once they'd started trying to carefully prune the venomous tentacula as Madam Sprout had instructed (after handing out small vials of antidote to the entire class), she gradually became aware that the Ravenclaws seemed to be doing a lot more whispering amongst themselves than the normally studious group tended to do. When she distinctly heard the words, ‘Granger,’ and ‘slag,’ she slammed her pruning shears down on the work bench, and yelled, "Alright, that's enough!"

Ron, who was working beside her, completely oblivious (as usual) to what was going on around him, jumped and sliced his finger with his shears right through his glove, sending blood spurting across the workbench. "Bloody hell, Hermione!" he yelped, sticking his finger in his mouth in an unsuccessful effort to stop the bleeding. Spitting disgustedly, he pulled it right back out, and held it in front of him, obviously at a loss as to what to do.

"Good Heavens, Mr. Weasley!" Madam Sprout came bustling over, clucking her tongue. She grabbed his hand, and examined his finger. "This is pretty deep. You'd better come along and see Poppy. I could heal it, but it would probably leave a scar. Come now, dear..." She ushured him out of the greenhouse.

As soon as the door closed behind them, every single student turned toward Hermione, the Ravenclaws with obvious hostility in their eyes. "Listen, I don't know what Cho has told you all..."

"You stole her boyfriend!" Padma Patil shot back.

"Sis, you know better than that," Parvati spoke up, "You know Hermione's not like that. It's been obvious forever that she and Cedric like each other. It's Cho that tried to steal Hermione's boyfriend."

Hermione was touched that her roommate would stand up for her against her own twin, and she could see that Parvati's words had reached some of the other Ravenclaws in addition to Padma, but she still felt like she had to clear things up. "Listen, Cedric and I weren't officially dating, yet, but he only accepted Cho's invitation to the Ball because he mistakenly thought _I_ had agreed to go with Viktor Krum. And _I_ only agreed to go with Viktor _after_ I heard that Cedric was going with Cho. It was all just a big misunderstanding. We didn't mean to hurt anyone, that's why we're both still going with our original dates."

"So you're dating Cedric?" Lisa Turpin asked curiously. At least the hostility seemed to have died down.

"Yes." Hermione nodded firmly, trying not to smile too giddily.

"Isn't he kind of old for you?" Seamus Finnegan piped up, wrinkling his nose. "He's in the Tournament, so he's gotta be at least seventeen..."

"He is, but I'm fifteen. My birthday's in September. So is Ced's...the same day, actually. He's only two years older than me." Hermione explained her age for what felt like the thousandth time since she'd first started primary school.

"You have the same birthday?" Lavender Brown asked. "That's so romantic!"

Hermione didn't see how it could really be considered romantic, but she smiled and nodded at her roommate anyway. A couple of other girls ‘Awwww’d,’ in the background.

After that, everyone gradually went back to work, and the only sounds were people hissing in pain as the venomous plants nipped at their fingers. Once everyone was focused back on their work, Harry moved to the spot Ron had previously occupied, and began half-heartedly poking at the waving tentacles of the plant in front of him. "So...you and Cedric, huh?"

"Yeah," Hermione glanced at him, and nodded warily. The tension was coming off him in waves, and she knew what his next question was going to be before he even asked.

"But he's still going to the Ball with Cho?" He asked quietly, not even pretending to work on the plant anymore.

"He doesn't want to go with her. At all. You should ask her again. Maybe she'd rather go with you, now," Hermione suggested. If Harry took Cho, half of their problem would be solved. She still had to talk to Viktor, but she knew he would have no problem finding another date. She still didn't understand why he had asked her in the first place.

"I don't know. It sounds like she really likes Cedric," Harry mumbled.

Hermione hesitated for a second, then murmured, "Maybe you should ask Ginny."

"Neville beat me to it," he sighed. "Besides, even if he hadn't, you know Ron would probably kill me if I ever went out with his sister. I'm not stupid..." He let out a dejected sigh, and poked viciously at his plant, which actually shrank away from him.

Hermione stared at him, eyes wide. "Wait. Do you like Ginny?"

"It doesn't matter," he shrugged. "Did you really think I didn't know that she has a crush on me? I’ve known for ages, and I think she’s great, too, but Ron would _kill_ me," he repeated.

Hermione sighed, knowing he was right. "Wait, what about Luna?"

"Who?" He asked, giving her a blank look, making it clear he'd never met the quirky blonde witch.

"She's a friend of Ginny's. A Ravenclaw. She seems really nice..." Crazy, but nice.

"Nah," Harry shook his head after giving it a few seconds thought. "Ron wants to ask the Patils. I think I'll just wait and see what they say." He glanced across the greenhouse at the twins, who were working on the same plant. "At least I know them...it would be weird to go with someone I don’t even know."

"Okay, Harry," Hermione frowned sadly. She wished it had really been Harry that Cho had been talking about the other day. Or that Ron wouldn’t be so overprotective of his sister. Then everyone could be as happy as she was. Not to mention that she'd be able to go to the Ball with her own boyfriend.

Boyfriend. It still seemed so surreal. Cedric was her _boyfriend_. She spent the rest of the class humming happily under her breath, calmly batting away the attempted bites from the plant she was struggling to prune.

***

Cedric was sitting in his favorite tree, having cast a warming spell to counteract the late December freeze. He probably ought to be in the library studying for midterms, or at least making up the classwork he’d missed the day before, but there were only a few minutes left of his second class of the day. Madam Pomfrey had written him an excuse when they realized he’d missed the beginning of Arithmancy, mainly so he could go to his dormitory for a much needed shower. After cleaning off all the sticky untransfiguration potion residue, Cedric felt a desperate need to clear his head, so he’d decided to visit his tree. He’d been relaxing there for about twenty minutes, once again replaying his memories of kissing Hermione. It still felt unreal that he no longer had to imagine what kissing her would be like.

“You’d better hope no one else comes out here and sees that stupid expression on your face,” a familiar voice threatened to destroy his mood, but even Draco couldn’t ruin today. “You look ridiculous.

“What? Because I’m smiling? You should try it sometime. It might improve those ferret-y features of yours,” Cedric replied, smirking when his cousin sputtered angrily at the reminder of Professor Moody’s mode of punishment.

“I cannot believe we’re actually related.” Draco sneered disgustedly after he’d pulled himself together. “It’s embarrassing.

“Really? Cuz you seem kind of obsessed with the fact. I honestly couldn’t care less, but you’ve been making those stupid buttons, and I hear you’ve been telling everyone who will listen that I’m a Malfoy.” Cedric rolled his eyes. At least a dozen people over the last few weeks had asked him if he was really related to the little git. “I’m _not_ a Malfoy. My father isn’t a Malfoy. My grandmother wasn’t even a Malfoy...not according to _your_ great-grandfather; she was disowned, remember?” Feeling his temper flare, he dropped down out of the tree, and took a step toward the smaller boy. He noticed to his amusement that Draco immediately took a step back. “You’re nothing but a spoiled, racist little snob, trying to reap fame and glory any way you can. So, quit trying to pretend that my being in the Tournament in _any_ way reflects positively on _you_. It’s really pathetic, but maybe if you’re lucky, they’ll have another Tournament when you’re older. Maybe Daddy can buy your way in,just like he did with the Quidditch team.”

Draco’s eyes widened, and then his pointy little face screwed up in fury. Before he could say anything, there was a sudden burst of applause. Both boys turned to find a bunch of fourth years who must have just walked up from the greenhouses, standing nearby. Cedric noticed happily that Hermione was among them.

“You tell him, Diggory!” one of the Ravenclaw boys exclaimed cheerfully.

Harry grinned and gave Cedric a quick thumbs up, and Hermione walked over and hugged him. “That was awesome,” she whispered before giving him a quick kiss on the lips. When she tried to pull away after a moment, he followed her, giving her another, longer kiss before stepping back. A couple of girls ‘Ooooh’d’ and ‘Aaaaah’d’ over this.

“Euuugh...” Draco made exaggerated gagging noises, muttered something about “rolling in the mud,” and spun on his heel, stomping off toward the castle door.

“I think someone’s jealous!” Padma Patil commented loudly. Draco stiffened visibly, then sped up, which set off a chorus of laughter and catcalls directed at the retreating Slytherin’s back.

“Ewwww,” Hermione shuddered. “As _if_!” she muttered, leaning against Cedric as the other students began to head inside.

Cedric patted her comfortingly on the shoulder. “Over my dead body.”

“Not even then.” Hermione snorted, snuggling closer to him. “I’d have to be brain dead.”

“Judging by his current girlfriend, that might not dissuade him,” Cedric pointed out, snickering.

“Eww, can we _please_ stop talking about Malfoy?” Hermione whined, covering her ears.

“Alright,” Cedric laughed, and put his arm around her waist. “Let’s go inside. Your lips are turning blue...” At some point during the encounter with Draco, his warming charm had worn off, and it was past time for lunch to be served.

“Mmm...I bet you could think of some way to warm me up,” Hermione fluttered her eyelashes at him very exaggeratedly, but couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Gods, I don’t know how Lavender and Parvati say ridiculous things like that with a straight face...”

“Ridiculous, huh? So you don’t want me to try to warm you up?” Cedric asked, only half joking as he turned her toward him, and started to lean closer.

“I didn’t say _that_...” Hermione whispered, rising up on her toes, and kissing him rather heatedly. She slid a hand behind his neck to tug him a little further down, and then playfully nipped at his bottom lip. It might have been partially because he’d been thinking about her all day, but when she slid her tongue into his mouth, he groaned, and tried to pull away, struggling to control his body’s immediate reaction. “What’s wrong?” Hermione asked, looking at him anxiously. “What’s wrong...am I a bad kisser?” She asked in a lower voice.

Cedric stared at her incredulously. “‘Mione...no,” he couldn’t help laughing a bit. “No, you’re incredible. That’s the problem.”

She blinked confusedly. “Huh? How is that a problem?” She asked innocently. It was pretty obvious that she really didn’t understand, which made Cedric love her even more.

He looked around, then pulled her close enough that she could _feel_ what he was talking about. “This isn’t exactly the time or the place for the other things kissing you that way makes me want to do with you...” he whispered, then released her, and took a step back. “We should go inside. They should be serving lunch by now.”

Hermione’s eyes widened, and her face flooded with color. When she put her hand in his, it was shaking slightly, but the slightly predatory look in her eyes told him she wasn’t exactly _nervous_. She gave him a small smirk and rolled her eyes, but said nothing as she followed him inside.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly kind of feel for them, because when I was seventeen, my boyfriend was fifteen, but he'd been held back a year because his parents moved around so much, and he was three years behind me, and we NEVER heard the end of it about the age difference between us. It got really old, really fast...
> 
> Oh, and this is where Cho really starts to act like a psycho. Just wait till they finally get to the Ball. lol


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Yule Ball!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not exactly how it went down in the book (or movie) I know. ;-)

Not surprisingly, the Yule Ball ended up being a bit of a train wreck. Hermione had explained to Viktor what had happened with Cedric, and fortunately he was fine with the situation. She told Cedric later that he’d admitted that he'd only asked her because she was one of the very few girls in the school who were both old enough to go with him (without creating a scandal), and also didn't harass him everywhere he went. The only other two fitting this description were lesbians, and they were going to the Ball with each other. Krum even approached Cedric on Thursday afternoon, and said that he really didn’t mind if Hermione spent the whole evening with him, as long as Cedric didn’t mind if he occasionally used her as an excuse not to dance with any of his more aggressive fans. Cedric had laughingly agreed. He had really misjudged the Bulgarian...he was really quite intelligent and friendly once you gave him a chance, despite his tendency to stomp around the castle, scowling and grunting.

Unfortunately, Cho wasn’t being nearly as cooperative as the professional Seeker. She kept popping up whenever Cedric and Hermione tried to find time alone together, asking him inane questions about what he was wearing to the Ball, what time they would meet, and where. Cedric finally told her that he was wearing black robes, and would meet her outside the Great Hall when the Champions were supposed to enter with their official companions. He emphasized the words ‘official companions,’ hoping she would remember that it wasn’t a real date. She didn’t seem phased by this, and in fact cast a gloating smirk at Hermione, who looked like she was about to throttle her until Cedric wrapped his arms around her, and murmured (loudly enough for Cho to hear), “Just a few more days, and it’ll be over!” At least  _ that _ wiped the stupid grin off Cho’s face for a little while. An hour later, she’d cornered him again to ask if he would consider wearing a Ravenclaw blue vest and tie. (He wouldn’t).

When the night of the Ball finally arrived, Cedric dressed quickly, and rushed up seven flights of stairs in order to meet Hermione just outside the Gryffindor tower entrance. He was especially eager to see Hermione after being separated from her all day while he helped the other Prefects finalize preparations for the Ball, and she went shopping in Hogsmeade with Ginny, Luna and a few other girls. He waited impatiently as most of her housemates seemed to emerge before she did. Even Harry and Ron came out before her, though Harry assured him that she should be out any minute. He was about to try slipping into the common room the next time the door opened when the portrait popped open again, and Hermione finally appeared. “Cedric! You didn’t have to come all the way up here!” She exclaimed when she saw him, smiling brightly, and throwing her arms around him.

Cedric’s jaw dropped. The sleeveless gown she was wearing showed a lot more of her pale, creamy skin than he was used to seeing, but what really stunned him was how radiant she looked. She wasn’t heavily made up like some of the other girls, so her own natural beauty was still obvious, emphasized more by her delighted smile than the lipstick or mascara she wore.

“I couldn’t wait to see you,” he murmured, kissing her cheek so he wouldn’t mess up her lipstick. “You look amazing,” he whispered in her ear, grinning when she shivered at the sensation of his breath on her neck. “How did you do this with your hair?” he asked curiously, twirling a stray curl in front of her ear around his finger. The rest was smoothed back, and arranged in some sort of intricate coil at the back of her head, with delicate ringlets hanging down. “You look lovely, ‘Mi.”

“You look pretty amazing, too,” she smirked slightly, stepping back, and very blatantly looking him over from head to toe. He blushed, but then made a joking show of modeling his dress robes for her. “Mmm...they really should change the dress code to formal attire every day,” Hermione murmured, rubbing her chin with an exaggeratedly thoughtful expression. “Then again, you’ve got enough girls following you around already...” she snorted, and rolled her eyes teasingly.

“I only care about one girl, and you know it,” he said firmly as he offered her his arm. “You’re the only girl I’ve ever wanted.”

She blushed, and her eyebrows crept up her forehead. “The only one?”

“Hey, I was only thirteen when we met,” he reminded her as they started to walk toward the stairwell.

“You were almost fourteen,” she shot back, looking far too dubious for his liking.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway, and made her turn toward him. “I’m dead serious, Hermione. I never really noticed any girls before I met you, and I certainly haven’t since. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever known, inside and out.” Ignoring her makeup, he kissed her warmly, and she clasped her hands behind his neck, pulling him down, and kissing him back just as passionately. When they finally parted for air, her lipstick was all but gone.  “I’m sorry, I totally messed up your...” he gestured vaguely at her mouth, then shrugged and gave her another quick kiss, playfully sucking on her bottom lip, and making her moan. “You still had a tiny bit left,” he murmured as he pulled away.

“This is why I don’t wear makeup,” Hermione muttered, rolling her eyes before pulling a small mirror and lipstick out of her bag, and quickly reapplying it.

“You don’t need it,” Cedric said, taking her hand when she was finished.

“Maybe, but it’s kind of fun once in awhile, and you know there’s going to be a ton of pictures.” She wrinkled her nose adorably. “I don’t know how poor Viktor can stand all the attention he gets.”

“Me either,” Cedric agreed. “It’s bad enough just being one of the Triwizard Champions, I can’t imagine what it’s like being a famous Quidditch player on top of it.”

“Maybe you’ll know one day.” Hermione smiled at him proudly, and squeezed his hand. “You’re really good.”

“I’m really not.” Cedric snorted. “Viktor’s not that much older than I am, and you’ve seen him play. Hell, Harry’s almost three years younger, and he’s already getting better than I am. I never would have beaten him to the snitch last year if it wasn’t for those dementors.” He wasn’t just being modest. There was ‘something’ professional Seekers had...all professional Quidditch players, really...and whatever that ‘something’ was, Cedric just didn’t have it. Maybe it was merely the ambition to go after a professional career, but he’d never had  _ any _ desire to go pro. He thought maybe he’d actually like to become a teacher someday, but the only school he’d want to teach at was Hogwarts, and none of the teachers in any of the subjects he excelled at...Transfiguration, Charms and Potions...were anywhere near ready to retire. There was Defense Against the Dark Arts, too, but everyone knew that position was supposedly cursed, and he half believed it. He honestly had no idea what he was going to do after he graduated, and he only had another year and a half to figure it out. An anxious knot started to form in his stomach, and he tried to shake it off as they quickly descended the main stairs.

They found Cho and Viktor waiting just outside the Great Hall, and made no secret of having just walked down from the Gryffindor dormitory together. Viktor was gracious about it, as always, bowing to Cedric, and promising to return Hermione to him after the first dance. Cho, on the other hand, immediately started acting like they were on a real date, hanging off his arm, and trying to snuggle up against his shoulder despite all of his efforts to keep her at a respectable distance. When he tried to excuse himself to dance with Hermione after the obligatory dance between the Champions and their official dates, Cho threw a full blown hissy fit, screaming at the top of her lungs, and then storming out of the room in tears. Everyone seemed to be watching...even the visiting professors, and especially Rita Skeeter, who looked positively giddy. Cedric was so embarrassed that he didn't really feel like dancing after that.  

“Come with me,” Hermione murmured in his ear, taking his hand. “Everyone can see she’s nuts, just ignore her.” She led him to the far end of the Great Hall, and ducked into a small alcove behind one of the elaborately decorated Christmas trees scattered around the room, hidden away from most of the curious stares.

“Everyone’s going to think we’re snogging back here,” Cedric pointed out, wrapping his arms around her, and kissing her cheek.

“So?” Hermione giggled, turning her head, and kissing him on the lips. “Shite, there goes my lipstick again...” she cursed as she pulled away.

Cedric laughed, and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Sure enough, it came away streaked with dark, rosy pink. “You’re really kind of terrible at being a girl,” he teased affectionately.

“You know, most girlfriends would take offense at that remark.” Hermione smirked as she took out her lipstick and mirror again.

“You’re not most girlfriends,” Cedric chuckled. “Thank Merlin.”

Just then, one of the girls from Beauxbatons made a very aggressive move on Viktor, who was forced to seek Hermione out, and very apologetically ask her to dance with him again, leaving Cedric by himself when Cho came back into the hall. He danced with her in hopes of getting her to calm down a bit, but as soon as Hermione came back over to them, Cho flipped out again. Then, Viktor was accosted by one of the seventh year Hufflepuffs, and regretfully asked Hermione for another dance.  The pattern seemed to repeat itself four or five times, until Cedric was about ready to scream with frustration. Near the end of one especially uncomfortable dance with Cho, during which she tried three times to grab his arse, he desperately blurted, “You know Harry actually  _ likes _ you, right?” This was clearly the wrong thing to say, because she screamed, and stormed out of the Great Hall. Cedric shrugged, and glanced at the clock. There were only about forty minutes left until the end of the ball, and he still hadn't gotten to dance with Hermione even once. It was maddening. Spotting Hermione standing on the other side of the room, near the refreshment table, he decided it was time to do something to salvage their evening.

***

Hermione carefully scanned the crowd, but couldn’t see Cedric anywhere. She was beginning to wish she’d never agreed to come to the ball. Viktor was being decent, but her feet  were killing her from dancing with him so much. She hadn’t realized just how many girls hit on him on a regular basis. And Cho was ruining everything, disrupting the few chances she’d had to spend a moment alone with Cedric. The ball was almost over, and now she couldn’t even find him. “Happy Bloody Christmas...” she muttered under her breath, leaning heavily against the long table behind her.

She noticed that Harry and Ron weren't having a very good time either. Harry was sulking...probably because of Cho’s obvious obsession with Cedric. Ron was eating...again. Neither of them had danced with their dates other than Harry's first dance with Parvati, and both of the Patil twins were fuming. Hermione couldn’t blame them. She wasn’t surprised by Ron’s behavior, but normally Harry was more considerate. 

Oddly enough, amongst Hermione's close friends, the only ones who seemed to be having a good time were Ginny and Neville. The normally shy boy turned out to be a remarkably good dancer, and the two spent the entire night on the dance floor twirling, dipping, and spinning contentedly without a care in the world. Hermione glanced over at Harry, and found him scowling at the pair. Maybe it wasn’t Cho’s behavior that had him in such a foul mood, after all. It was too bad that Ron was so overprotective of his younger sister. Hermione thought that Harry and Ginny would be good for each other, but knew Harry would probably never risk becoming the target of Ron’s wrath by pursuing the younger girl. 

"At least someone's happy," Cedric murmured in her ear, making her jump. She'd been so absorbed in watching her friends that she hadn’t noticed him approaching. From the angry shrieks currently coming from the Ravenclaw as she stormed out of the Hall (again) a few seconds ago, he must have been dancing with Cho again

"That girl needs to be medicated," Hermione muttered, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend. "What was it this time?"

"I told her Harry likes her," he sighed tiredly, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I thought it might help."

"I don't think Harry likes her all that much anymore. And I doubt anything will help her except maybe Valium. Or Lithium, she might need Lithium..." Hermione shrugged. "Thorazine...Prozak..."

"What are those?" He asked.

"Muggle medications for psychiatric patients," Hermione grinned. "I'm not sure what's wrong with her, so it's hard to guess what she needs."

"She definitely needs  _ something _ ," he muttered, then leaned back, and looked into her eyes, "I'm tired of talking about Cho. Dance with me?"

"Really?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Yes!" He smiled. "This thing is almost over, and I'll be damned if I'm going to suffer through three hours with that nightmare, and not get to dance with you at least once. Come on..." he took her hand and led her into the middle of the dance floor. Bowing gallantly, he said, "Milady?"

Giggling, Hermione curtseyed playfully, then placed one hand on his shoulder, and the other hand in his as he put his free hand on her waist and led her into a waltz. Hermione soon forgot all about Cho, the Tournament, and everything else that had been troubling her as they glided around the room. Then, the music changed to a more modern, slow, romantic ballad. Cedric pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist as she rested her head on his chest, and clasped her hands at the back of his neck. They rocked back and forth slightly to the beat, but mostly their ‘dance’ was just a long, loving embrace. Hermione sighed contentedly, and closed her eyes, enjoying the chance to just hold him. They'd both been so busy with studying for their upcoming midterms the last few days that they really hadn't had much time alone together except when they were hunched over piles of books and parchment in the library. "This is nice," she mumbled tiredly into the smooth fabric of his robes.

"This is what the whole night should have been like," he whispered, kissing her temple. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you soon enough."

"Stop apologizing. I think you've been more than sufficiently punished." Hermione chuckled softly, then kissed his neck, just above the collar of his shirt.

Cedric shivered, and stopped swaying. "Do you want to get out of here for a bit? Curfew isn't for another half hour, and I'm sure as hell not dancing with Cho again..."

Hermione tilted her head back, and looked at him. His eyes were extremely dark, even considering the fact that they were lit only by dim candlelight. Hermione's stomach fluttered, and she nodded slowly. "Okay. Where do you want to go?" she asked, smiling a bit nervously.

"Just outside. Away from everyone staring at us," he whispered, grinning mischievously. "Come on..." He took her hand and led her through the room, which was already beginning to clear out as some of the younger students headed for their dorms. When they reached the front doors, Cedric cast a quick warming spell around them, and led her across the courtyard to ‘his’ tree, which was covered in fairy lights. "Much better," he sighed happily, leaning back against the trunk, and taking a deep breath.

"Much," Hermione agreed, wrapping her arms around him, and snuggling up against his right shoulder. She was pretty sure there were other couples nearby, hidden under other trees, and behind some of the larger decorative columns, but she couldn't see any of them. The other students were probably too preoccupied to be paying any attention to her and Cedric, so they might as well be alone, except for the glowing fairies flitting amongst the branches overhead.

Cedric ducked his head down to kiss her neck, and she quickly forgot about everything but the feel of his lips on her skin. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she tried to kiss whatever parts of him she could reach without disrupting what he was doing, which at that moment was sucking on her collarbone, which was barely visible over the neckline of her gown. "Did I tell you you look beautiful tonight?" he whispered against her skin, sending shivers down her spine.

"You might have mentioned it," Hermione moaned as he licked her pulse point. 

Cedric chuckled huskily. "Well, you do," he mumbled before sucking on the same spot while simultaneously flicking his tongue over it.

"Cedric..." Hermione whispered, giving up on trying to kiss his shoulder through his robes, and taking his head in both her hands so she could pull his lips up to meet hers.

He turned them as he covered her mouth with his, pressing her back against the trunk of the tree as he eased his tongue inside her mouth, gently exploring and probing. Soon, Hermione began to feel like the warming charm he had cast was a bit too strong. Her whole body seemed to be on fire as he pulled away from her mouth again to kiss his way back down her neck. He seemed to be obsessed with one particular spot on her collarbone. Not that she objected at all, except for the fact that she didn't have access to any of his skin when he kissed her there. She had to settle for kissing the top of his head. His hair smelled really good, though; like oranges and honey, and it was really silky when she ran both of her hands through it, gently scratching his scalp with her fingernails. He must have liked that, because he moaned softly, and bit down lightly on the junction of her neck and shoulder. Hermione gasped loudly, and he licked the spot to ease the sting, then sucked hard while gently biting down again.

Hermione didn't have much experience with boys, but she'd heard Lavender and Parvati talking enough to realize what he was up to. "Are you trying to give me a love bite?" she asked, laughing softly.

"Maybe?" He mumbled, looking up guiltily.

"Prat," she scolded half-heartedly. She was secretly a bit excited that he wanted to mark her that way, even if it was rather sexist. "Is it working?"

He looked down at her neck, then back up at her, "Sorta." He grinned wickedly, then placed his mouth back over the spot and nibbled again, sucking a bit harder.

Hermione moaned loudly, and he pulled away. "Shhhhh!" He whispered, then looked at her neck again. "Okay, that did it..." He smirked widely as he straightened up, hugging her, and resting his chin on the top of her head.

"Neanderthal," Hermione complained jokingly. Realizing his neck was now right in front of her face, she tugged his collar a bit further out of the way, and set out to return the favor. First, she kissed him right below his right ear, earning a fairly heated moan. Then, she kissed her way down as far as she could until his collar blocked the way, and bit down gently, sucking hard on the bit of flesh between her teeth. Cedric groaned, and rocked his hips against hers, so she kept sucking for a few more seconds before letting go. To her delight, he now had a fairly large, dark red mark on his neck. "Ha!"

"Neanderthal," He teased, laughing a bit breathlessly. "Hypocrite..."

"Turnabout is fair play." Hermione shrugged, wrapping her arms back around his waist.

He cupped her chin in his hand, and ducked down to kiss her on the lips, but pulled away far too soon, gazing at her with a thoughtful look on his face.

"What?" She asked curiously.

"I need to buy you a step stool for Christmas. You're far too short..." He grinned teasingly, and kissed her on the nose.

"Or you’re freakishly tall." Hermione snorted, and rolled her eyes. She started to stretch up on her toes to kiss him again, but just then a jingling chime sounded in the courtyard, and Professor McGonagall’s voice floated through the courtyard.

"Just a reminder...curfew is in five minutes. All students except prefects, please report back to your dormitories immediately, or risk detention. I repeat...all students please report back to your dormitories immediately. Prefects, please report to the Great Hall for cleaning duty."

"Ugh," Cedric groaned, pulling away from her, and offering her his arm as she pushed away from the trunk of the tree. "That didn't seem like half an hour."

"No, it didn't," Hermione agreed ruefully.

"I don't even have time to walk you back to your dorm," Cedric sighed as they walked back inside. "I have to help clean up. I’m sorry."

"It's not your fault," Hermione smiled reassuringly at him. Then, she spotted Ginny, Neville, Ron and Harry walking toward the stairs. "Look, there's Ginny, and the boys. I can walk with them."

"Okay." Cedric smiled warmly at her, and ducked his head for a quick kiss. "Good night, beautiful," he whispered before kissing her again.

"Good night," Hermione whispered against his lips. "I love you."

"I love you, too," He smiled, releasing her with obvious reluctance. "See you in the morning?"

"Of course!" She exclaimed. Stretching up on her toes, she kissed him one last time, and forced herself to step away. "Bye."

"Bye," Cedric waved slightly, but then started to lean toward her again. “One more...”

"You two are disgusting," someone said nearby. Hermione turned, and found Ginny grinning mischievously at them. "Come on, we're going to be late for curfew!" The younger girl exclaimed, grabbing Hermione's hand, and dragging her toward the stairs. "You'll live without each other for eight freaking hours, sheesh."

Cedric laughed, and waved again before turning toward the Great Hall. Hermione envied him for not having to run up seven flights of stairs in the three minutes now remaining, but then again, she didn’t have to clean up, and she noticed with a satisfied grin that he seemed to be walking a bit funny, so perhaps they were even.

***

Cedric started to make his way back into the Great Hall, desperately trying to will his stubborn body to calm down after his heated encounter with Hermione. He’d almost reached the Great Hall when he remembered something that had slipped his mind all evening. Spinning on his heel, he called. “Hey! Harry!”

Harry turned, halfway up the first set of stairs, and cocked his head questioningly. “Yeah?”

Cedric jogged up the stairs, looked around, and whispered, “Hey, about the egg...”

“Did you figure it out?” Harry asked, perking up considerably.

“Yeah.” Cedric grinned, deciding not to tell Harry  _ everything _ . “Take a bath, okay?”

“What?” Harry frowned, and sniffed his armpit.

Laughing, Cedric said, “You’re fine...just take a bath and take the egg with you. Trust me.” 

Harry stared at him like he’d lost his mind. 

“Use the prefects’ bathroom,” Cedric offered, remembering how busy the dormitory bathrooms could get sometimes. “‘Mione can show you where it is. The password is ‘pine fresh.’”

“Uh, thanks.” Harry smiled confusedly and nodded. “I really appreciate it.”

“Least I can do after you helped me with the dragons.” Cedric shrugged. “And that whole saving my life third year thing...” he added quietly.

“Right.” Harry shifted his weight, looking uncomfortable. 

“Harry, are you coming?” Ginny’s voice floated down from the next flight of stairs.

“I’ve gotta go...” Harry said apologetically, and started to turn away.

“Harry!” Cedric called impulsively.

“Yeah?” Harry turned back. looking a bit exasperated.

“Tell her,” Cedric said, gesturing upward with his chin. “You know she feels the same way. Don’t let Ron, or anyone else, stand in your way. If he’s really your friend, he’ll get over it.” 

Harry opened his mouth as if to argue, then looked up thoughtfully, his mouth twisting into a half frown. “I’ll think about it,” he mumbled, then nodded again and turned to run upstairs. 

Hoping he hadn’t just given his friend the worst advice ever, Cedric made his way back to the Great Hall, quietly whistling the song he and Hermione had danced to earlier. Remarkably, they’d emerged from the train wreck of a Ball relatively unscathed, and now he was completely free of any obligation to Cho. He’d figured out the egg, and clued Harry in, so they should both make it through the second task. His life was looking pretty sweet...especially with more kisses like that likely to come...he grinned as he touched his neck where Hermione had left her mark on him. 

Life was definitely good.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I borrowed/paraphrased some dialogue from the book, but I actually only accidentally copied the "Hey, Harry!" "Yeah?" bit from the conversation about the egg before I even pulled out the book to see how that conversation actually went. Guess my memory is better than I thought! I tried to change that conversation a bit because a) they're friends in this story, so Harry is a lot less...er...hostile, and b) copying everything verbatim seemed boring and a little lazy. Obviously Rowling still owns it all anyway!

**Author's Note:**

> Other than Henry Collins, I don't own any of this; I'm just borrowing it for a while.


End file.
